Study on the Pattern and Differentiation Mechanism of Community Livelihood in a Scenic Area with Villages: a case of National 5A Tourist Scenic Spot in Southwest Mountainous Area

Abstract

Under the background of the rural revitalization strategy, the endogenous economic growth model of the scenic belt-village strategy as an essential way of livelihood development in the poor areas directly affects the effect of the peasant households to get rid of poverty. To  understand the driving impact of tourist attractions on the surrounding communities, this paper is based on field research and in-depth interviews of the National 5A class tourist attractions in Puzhehei, southwest mountain area. The Sustainable Livelihood Framework is adopted to construct the evaluation index system, Livelihood Diversification Index, and Redundancy Analysis method for farmers' livelihood capital, analyzes the differentiation, effect, and influencing factors of community livelihood model driven by scenic spots. The results show that: the community livelihood model caused by scenic spots is divided into four types: non-travel, concurrent travel, combined travel, and exclusive travel. The living capital reserves of the premier travel community are abundant, but the residing stability is poor, and the function is not ideal. The concurrent travel and combined travel community's living capital reserves are plentiful, the living stability is good, and the procedure is perfect. The non-tourist community is short of capital reserves, and its livelihood is not stable and functional. The choice of community livelihood model is most affected by the entrance of the scenic spot and the distance of the nearest scenic area.