Traditional rural tourism appeared after the industrial revolution, mainly because some urban residents from rural areas appeared in the form of "returning home" for vacation. Although traditional rural tourism will have some valuable economic impact on the local area and increase the opportunities for urban-rural exchanges, it is very different from modern rural tourism, which is mainly reflected in the following aspects: traditional rural tourism activities are mainly carried out on holidays; Did not effectively promote the development of local economy; It did not increase employment opportunities, nor did it improve the local financial environment. In fact, traditional rural tourism is widespread in both developed and developing countries. In China, this traditional rural tourism is often classified as visiting relatives.
Modern rural tourism is a new tourism model that appeared in rural areas in 1980s, especially after 1990s. Tourism motivation is obviously different from that of traditional tourists returning to their hometowns. The characteristics of modern rural tourism are: the travel time is not limited to holidays; Modern rural tourists make full use of the beautiful rural landscape, natural environment, architecture, culture and other resources; The contribution of modern rural tourism to rural economy is not only to increase local fiscal revenue and create employment opportunities for the local area, but also to inject new vitality into the local weak traditional economy.
Modern rural tourism has played a positive role in promoting rural economic development. With the rapid increase of tourists with modern characteristics, modern rural tourism has become an effective means to develop rural economy. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish this kind of "homecoming" tourism or the difference between traditional rural tourism and modern rural tourism. What we call rural tourism refers to modern rural tourism which takes rural nature and cultural objects as tourist attractions, relies on beautiful rural landscapes, natural environment, architecture and culture, and develops new tourism modes such as meetings, vacations, leisure and entertainment on the basis of traditional rural leisure tours and agricultural experience tours.
There is no completely unified definition of rural tourism in academic circles at home and abroad, and there are mainly the following viewpoints:
Spanish scholars Gilbert and Dong (1990) believe that rural tourism is a form of tourism in which farmers provide accommodation and other conditions for tourists to engage in various leisure activities in typical rural environments such as farms and pastures.
The World Economic Cooperation and Development Committee (OECD, 1994, P. 15) defines rural tourism as the center and unique selling point of rural tourism.
Arie Reichel and Oded Lowengart in Israel and Ady millman in the United States (1999) put it simply: rural tourism is rural tourism. It has rural characteristics such as small scale, open territory and sustainable development of tourism enterprises.
British Bramwell and Lane (1994) believes that rural tourism is not only an agricultural-based tourism activity, but also a multi-faceted tourism activity, including not only agricultural-based holiday tourism, but also natural tourism, eco-tourism, holiday hiking, mountaineering and horseback riding, exploration, sports and health tourism, hunting and fishing, educational tourism, cultural and traditional tourism with special interests, and
There are many definitions of rural tourism in China. He Jingming and Li Lihua believe that rural tourism in a narrow sense refers to tourism activities in rural areas with rural natural objects and cultural relics as tourist attractions. The concept of rural tourism includes two aspects: first, it occurs in rural areas, and second, it takes rural nature as a tourist attraction, both of which are indispensable.