Driving Mechanisms of the Integration of Ecological Farms and Rural Tourism: A Mixed Method Study

Integration with rural tourism is an important way to achieve the sustainable development of ecological farms. Existing literature on the integration of agriculture and tourism lacks discussion from the microscopic farm level, making it difficult to capture the complex mechanisms of the integration of ecological farms and rural tourism. This paper attempts to address this problem by exploring the driving factors of the integration of ecological farms and rural tourism. The research aim of this paper is to construct a theoretical framework for driving the integration of ecological farms and rural tourism. We first conducted research on farms in four ecological agriculture demonstration zones: Ziquejie in Loudi, Hunan Province; Heshi in Shilin, Yunnan Province; Rongjiang in Dali, Yunnan Province; and Youxiqiao Village in Hunan Province. We interviewed 64 stakeholders in ecotourism and used grounded theory methods to construct a model and propose hypotheses. On this basis, a measurement scale was designed, and data was collected from 1041 Chinese ecological farms (ecological farm operators) using a structured questionnaire. The partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) was used to model and analyze the data to test the constructed model. The study found that higher market demand, regional economic level, intrinsic development needs, intrinsic resource endowments, technical support, and resource integration can promote the integration of ecological farms and rural tourism. Market demand and intrinsic development needs constitute the generative force of agritourism integration, while resource integration and intrinsic resource endowments constitute the development force of agritourism integration, and technical support and the regional economic level constitute the supporting force of agritourism integration.