Why can't rural tourism do without farmers' participation?

"Rural tourism is good!" was the inscription personally written by Du Runsheng, former director of the Rural Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee, on September 3 for the "China Modern Rural Tourism 30 Years Forum." This may have been the old man's last inscription. On September 19, the "China Modern Rural Tourism 30 Years Forum and the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Tourism Cooperation Professional Committee of the China Cooperative Economic Society" was held in Beijing. Zhang Beiying, vice chairman of the International Tourism and Leisure Industry Association and chairman of the Tourism Cooperation Professional Committee of the China Cooperative Economic Society, said that marked by the Xu Family Courtyard farmhouse in Pidu County, Chengdu in 1985, China's rural tourism has gone through a full 30 years, and the development of rural tourism has entered a new stage of development.

Wei Xiao'an, deputy director of the National Leisure Standardization Technical Committee, said at the meeting that rural tourism has now become a very important part of rural development and has produced a great effect. "First, from the perspective of resources, the development of China's rural tourism has gone through three upgrades. The first was the simple use of resources, which is the so-called eating farm meals and staying in farmhouses. The second upgrade was the comprehensive use of resources, and the third upgrade was the in-depth excavation of resources and the creation of new resources, that is, the rural lifestyle."

Over the past 30 years, the infrastructure of rural tourism destinations has been continuously improved. Rural tourism products have also continuously developed from the initial "farmhouse fun" toward agricultural sightseeing tourism, fruit and vegetable picking tourism, farming experience tourism, and rural fitness and wellness tourism vacation products. The development of rural tourism has promoted exchanges between cities and villages and accelerated and promoted the development of China's modern agriculture. However, "from 30 years to now, comprehensive, historical and in-depth analysis and research on rural tourism are still lacking." Du Yili, former deputy director of the National Tourism Administration, believes that research on rural tourism within the industry is rising, but until today, these studies have mainly focused on "technique." "They focus on the diversity of market demand, on the many kinds of rural resources, on the different models of product forms, and especially on the profit model of rural tourism. All of these are technical issues; they are 'technique,' not 'dao.' The organizational mode of rural tourism is also technique, but it is directly connected to 'dao' - the core issue of agriculture, rural areas and farmers is farmers, and farmers' participation is the root of rural tourism. The form of farmers' participation and the organizational mode of rural tourism are 'technique' and also 'dao.'"

At the forum, rural tourism practitioners from Beijing, Wuxi and other places described their practices and reflections in recent years. Among them, Feng Jianguo of the Beijing Rural Economy Research Center published a research report titled "Cooperation Promotes Division of Labor, Division of Labor Promotes Division of Industry, Division of Industry Promotes Specialization," on Beijing's practice and research in using cooperative organizations to promote the upgrading of rural tourism. Du Yili said: "This report inspires us to study issues from three angles: first, what kind of rural tourism organizational mode conforms to the trend of rural development and to the current production organization mode in rural areas; second, what kind of rural tourism organizational mode adapts to the needs and laws of the tourism market; third, accurately identify the basic issues in the combination of the rural system and the tourism market, think about the difficult issues in solving the combination of the rural system and the tourism market, and seek the best way to solve the special problems of rural tourism."

He Kang, former minister of agriculture of China, aged 93, pointed out in a written speech that in the process of developing rural tourism, the organizational forms of rural tourism enterprises are diverse. There are corporate systems (sole proprietorship, joint venture, and shareholding), and there are individual micro-enterprise systems. Since reform and opening up, the position and role of the cooperative economy in rural economic development have once again been valued by people. Various types of professional cooperatives have developed relatively quickly and well, and tourism cooperatives are one type of various professional cooperatives. Tourism cooperatives have also gradually been registered by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce as enterprise legal persons from the form of natural-person associations. "I hope that government tourism and industry and commerce policy research departments will promptly summarize the organizational operation and management experience of tourism cooperatives, promote the healthy development of tourism cooperatives, and, in order to improve the quality of China's rural tourism, formulate rural tourism service standards, form rural tourism brands, and make new contributions together with rural tourism practitioners."

According to expert estimates, of China's 3.6 billion person-times of travel in a year, at least 1.8 billion go to the countryside, among which at least 600 million person-times are directly received by farmers. In the next 5 to 10 years, rural tourism receptions can reach a scale of 2 billion person-times, and those directly received by farmers can reach 1 billion person-times.

"For rural tourism on such a large scale, those doing it well are as rare as morning stars. The problems have come. The development speed of rural tourism is too fast; the degree of marketization is very high, and market demand at multiple levels breaks out at the same time; products do not adapt, services do not adapt, and the overall environment for rural tourism does not adapt. The deeper problem is: rural tourism that adheres to the 'three rural principles' (run by farmers, enjoyed by farmers, benefited by farmers) has encountered practical difficulties, namely that individual farmers' ability to improve is insufficient; without a good organizational mode it will not work; choosing 'a high degree of organization' will be accompanied by prominent 'scenic area-local conflicts'; whenever external forces are introduced, they almost always conflict with the 'three rural principles.'" Du Yili said. The rise of rural tourism has brought problems that are multi-dimensional. Upholding the interests of agriculture, rural areas and farmers is the starting point for studying rural tourism issues; adapting to the marketization requirements of the tourism industry is the difficult issue in rural tourism systems and mechanisms, including organizational modes. China's rural tourism must both upgrade and protect the interests of agriculture, rural areas and farmers. "In this process, exploring an organizational mode compatible with the productive forces is a historical task and also a historical process."