RURAL TOURISM INDEX FRAMEWORK FOR SHAANXI PROVINCE, CHINA FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF HIGH-QUALITY DEVELOPMENT

Rural tourism is often described as a vital tool in developing the tourism industry and it has the strong potential to accelerate social and economic development in rural areas. Accordingly, rural tourism has become a popular topic in both reality and academic areas in recent decades. With its economy developing rapidly, China has proposed new national policies and strategies to guide and support rural tourism development. The concept of “high-quality development” is one that regulates and advances the rural tourism development. To provide an efficient tool for grasping the current situation of high-quality rural tourism development, evaluation index systems show great importance. However, there has been little research constructing scientific, reasonable and comprehensive evaluation index systems of high-quality development reflecting the current situation of rural tourism in China to precisely respond to the requirements of this new era of high- quality development in all aspects. Therefore, this research will identify possible index system indicators for rural tourism development and construct an initial evaluation index framework based on high-quality development for further quantitative assessment work to reflect the situation of the rural tourism industry at a provincial level. By reviewing relevant literature, 38 potential indicators were selected and categorised under the criteria of five development concepts. Two rounds of Delphi method expert consultation were utilised, with 33 indicators selected for the rural tourism evaluation index framework for Shaanxi from the perspective of high-quality development.