Decoding the Rural Gaze: A Framework for Tourist Experience and Destination Appeal

This study examines how tourists gaze and experience rural destinations, and how this shapes their satisfaction and recommendations. Grounded in Urry’s Tourist Gaze theory, we extend the concept to rural contexts by developing a “Rural Gaze Framework” that integrates visual, nonvisual, and other elements of rurality. Using Mawlynnong village in India as a case study, we applied a mixed-method netnographic approach, combining sentiment analysis and topic modeling in R with qualitative thematic coding in ATLAS.ti of TripAdvisor reviews. Analysis shows that tourist gaze is shaped by a combination of visual elements (sight-based gaze), nonvisual elements (other senses), shared or relational elements (people and interaction-based gaze), and critical or evaluative (judgment-oriented gaze). Over time, the rise of themes such as “overhyped,” “loss of authenticity,” and “overcrowding” reflects a shift in the perceived gaze, coinciding with a decline in positive sentiment. The study contributes theoretically by adapting the tourist gaze to encompass rural tourism’s multisensory, performative, and negotiated dimensions, linking these to measurable sentiment and behavioral outcomes. Practically, the findings offer guidance for destination managers and policymakers to preserve rural authenticity, manage commercialization, and design sustainable tourism strategies that align with both tourist expectations, community well-being, and sustainable development.