ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agricultural and Food Economics
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1673999
Can the Integration of Agriculture and Tourism Improve the Rural Human Settlement Environment? —Based on Panel Data of 30 Provinces over 2008-2022 in China
Provisionally accepted
Ziyi Liu1
Chen Chen2*- 1School of Geography and Environmental Science, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, China
- 2School of Public Adiministration and Law, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China
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Comprehensively improving the rural human settlement environment is one of the important aspects of rural revitalization in China. Building beautiful and livable villages is of vital importance to the well-being of farmers. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2008 to 2022, this study uses the entropy weight TOPSIS model to measure the level of rural human settlement environment(RHSE), and employs the entropy value method, factor analysis method and grey correlation degree model to evaluate the level of agriculture tourism integration (ATL). On this basis, the dynamic spatial Durbin model and threshold effect model are used to test the impact of ATL on RHSE. The results show: ①RHSE and ATL have significant spatial clustering characteristics. Given the dynamic and continuous characteristics of RHSE, the dynamic spatial Durbin model can better reveal the relationship between the two. ②ATL has a significant direct impact and spillover effect on RHSE. That is, agriculture tourism integration can effectively improve the rural human settlement environment. And in the four regions of the east, central, west and northeast, the direct effect in the central region is the strongest, and the spillover effect in the eastern region is the most significant. ③The impact of ATL on RHSE has a prominent stage and economic dependence, demonstrating typical nonlinear threshold characteristics. The impact effect of ATL on RHSE shows a dual threshold characteristic as the ATL increases, and a single threshold characteristic as the regional economic level improves. The research results provide policy implications for promoting the deep integration of agriculture and tourism to promote the improvement of rural human settlement environment.
Keywords: integration of agriculture and tourism, Rural human settlement environment, spillover effects, dynamic spatial Durbin model, Threshold effect model
Received: 27 Jul 2025; Accepted: 08 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Chen Chen, School of Public Adiministration and Law, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China
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