The countryside in the eyes of the beholder: developing and testing a tourists’ rurality perception scale

Although rurality is considered the core attraction of rural tourism, few studies have explored how to define and measure it using the tourist perspective. To address this gap, this study identified the different dimensions of the tourists’ rurality perception by qualitatively analyzing tourists’ online reviews and interview texts. These dimensions reflect both objective elements of rurality and the subjective feelings of tourists. This study argues that rurality should be defined in the tourism context as a combination of objective elements (e.g. landscape, built, and natural features) influencing tourists’ subjective perceptions (e.g. peaceful, engaging). Therefore, this study identified and categorized the different dimensions of the tourists’ rurality perceptions, developed these categories and dimensions into a tourists’ rurality perception scale with 25 items representing five dimensions (i.e. relaxation, authenticity, novelty, escapism, and modernity), and tested the scale’s reliability and validity. This novel measurement scale provides theoretical support and practical guidance for rural tourism research and development.