How information and communication technologies contribute to rural tourism resilience: evidence from China

Rural tourism plays an important role in advancing the rural economy but faces unexpected risks and challenges such as the deterioration of operational performance. Information and communications technologies (ICT) – such as digital payment platforms, online booking systems, social media marketing, and virtual reality tours – become pervasive in the tourism industry during the current digital era. However, little empirical evidence has been presented about how such technologies impact rural tourism and if rural tourism resilience gets enhanced with the support of ICT in China. This study addresses this research gap by analyzing a sample of 20,716 rural tourism operators from the Third National Agricultural Census of 2016 in Beijing, which is a major urban center in China with a substantial market for rural tourism products and services. With the aid of a treatment effect model (TEM), the research results show that ICT can be an effective way to promote the rural tourism industry through mitigating business difficulties and risks and therefore to enhance the resilience of rural tourism. Our study shows that ICT plays an important and positive role in promoting tourism sales externally and enhancing management internally. The heterogeneity of the operator’s organization type and human capital also makes a difference. The sample data robustly show that ICT can effectively alleviate “scale discrimination” and support “low education level bias”, which is conducive to small-scaled business households and has also increased the resilience of those operators who are at a disadvantaged position in the industry.