Willingness to pay and preferences for rural tourism attributes among urban residents: A discrete choice experiment in China

Rural development policy creation should consider recent significant changes in emerging sectors such as rural tourism. This study conducts a choice experiment (CE) in six Chinese cities to examine two things: urban residents' willingness to pay (WTP) and their heterogeneous preferences for rural attributes. Results indicate that respondents are willing to pay for the attributes such as friendly service, traditional culture, local style accommodations, and exposure to nature, with those having higher income also exhibit a higher WTP. Subsequent simulation reveals that the change of rurality greatly impacts the WTP for alternatives. Socio-demographic characteristics are found to be important sources of preference heterogeneity. Using the latent class model (LCM), respondents are divided into "rural-comfort seekers" and "rural culture and amusement lovers". These findings suggest the transformation of rural areas into diversified consumption spaces with a heightened emphasis on rurality conservation.