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A Rural Tourism Destination Model Examined from The Lens of Tourists – Validated Using TOPSIS, Neural Network Simulation, and SEM

Abstract: This study uses the VOSViewer software for the bibliometric study of the existing literature, which serves as a base for the netnography examination of how tourists perceive of their experiences in Guizhou’s rural tourism destinations. The netnographic analysis suggests a theoretical base, which has four domains of stimulation that should positively influence the perceptions of tourists in aspects of authenticity, sustainability ability of the destination, flow experience of tourists, and tourist attachment. The four stimulus domains are destination identity and attractions, amenity services and rural interaction, destination promotion and personality matching, and tourist experiences and values. Having positively influenced tourist perceptions, the study further validates their positive outcomes on tourist satisfaction and loyalty using neural network analysis. The TOPSIS mathematical optimization shows that Zhaoxing Dong Village is far more of a preferred rural tourism destination when compared to Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village and Haiping Qianhu Yizhain in Guizhou province of China. A five-hundred sample size of tourists visiting the three rural tourism destinations was used for validating the proposed theoretical model generated from netnography technique. The study provides numerous key theoretical and practical implications: the stimulus of rural tourism destinations captures destination-enabled and tourist-experiencing and marketing factors, which can foster long-term memorable images in terms of sustainability ability and authenticity of the destinations, promoting experience flow immersion, and attachment to the destination, positive influence on tourist satisfaction and loyalty to the destinations. The demographic and psychographic differences are also discussed.