Formulation and impact of wellness tourism policy on household income in rural China

Following the policy "Health China 2030" issued by the Chinese central government in 2016, wellness tourism has become one of the key strategic industries in China. Presently, research on wellness tourism policy in China generally focuses on market development. At the same time, there is a lack of relevant research on the extent to which policies on wellness tourism pay attention to rural revitalization and its effect on rural households. This study mainly aims to explore the Chinese government's attention to wellness tourism policy and the influence of wellness tourism policies on rural residents' income. By using quantitative research methods, this study chose a time starting from 2011 as the first wellness tourism-related policy document issued and until 2024. Firstly, this study collected and screened total of 88 wellness tourism policy texts issued by Chinese government. Using the textual analysis method and government attention allocation theory, this study examines wellness tourism policy in different periods from three dimensions: key policy focus themes, the hierarchy and cooperation between relevant departments of the Chinese government, and policy instruments used to achieve objectives. By using these three dimensions, this study attempted to explain how and the extent to which the government pays attention to wellness tourism in rural areas. Secondly, this study selected five datasets from China Household Panel Research Database (CFPS) in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020 with total of 51,377 samples to examine the effect of wellness tourism policy on the economic status especially income levels of rural residents in China by using the Coarsened Exact Matching and Difference in Difference analytical technique. Results indicated that the current wellness tourism policy exhibits insufficient focus on rural regions. Grassroots governments, particularly at the country or township level, have not effectively engaged in the formulation and execution of wellness tourism policy. Also, policymakers exhibit over-reliance on establishing industry standards and specification formulation while neglecting financial support such as detailed implementation guidelines for tax reduction and concessional loans. Additionally, the average income of rural residents has seen a 4.6% increase, partly due to the wellness tourism policy. However, the extent of this income change is influenced by factors such as geographic location, levels of economic development as well as occupation of rural residents. Integrating insights from all research results, this study concludes that China's wellness tourism policy could significantly enhance rural households' income levels even though little government policy attention is allocated to rural areas. Therefore, to achieve the policy image of rural revitalization, policymakers should pay more attention to the implementation of policy in rural areas and provide targeted support to wellness tourism industry practitioners through more context-appropriate policy instruments.