Development of the well-being scale for urban elderly tourists who travel in the countryside for summer health

ABSTRACT

Rural summer health tourism for the urban elderly (RSHTUE) is developing in China. RSHTUE tourists are predominantly urban elderly who stay in the countryside for a long time during the summer. This study first obtained the initial dimensions and item lists of the RSHTUE tourist well-being scale from the literature and interview data. Then, the expert panel method was applied to determine the initial scale. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted to obtain an 8D 28-item RSHTUE tourist well-being scale. This scale can be used to support subsequent theoretical studies and guide the RSHTUE's development practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourist well-being
• scale development
• rural tourism
• health tourism
• urban elderly
• structural equation model

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the 14 students of the research group who participated in the questionnaire survey, the 15 farmhouse operators who were interviewed, and all the tourists who were surveyed. Thanks to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 72064020), Jiangxi Social Science Fund Project (No. 22GL08), Jiangxi Culture and Art Science Planning Fundand (No. YG2022153), Jiangxi Normal University Graduate Student Innovation Fund Project (No. YJS2021009), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 30921012208]), and Jiangsu Decision-making and Consultation Institution for Service-oriented Government Development (NJUST) (No. AE89630).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China: [Grant Number 72064020]; Jiangxi Social Science Fund Project: [Grant Number 22GL08]; Jiangxi Culture and Art Science Planning Fundand: [Grant Number YG2022153]; Jiangxi Normal University Graduate Student Innovation Fund Project: [Grant Number YJS2021009]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities: [Grant Number 30921012208]; Jiangsu Decision-making and Consultation Institution for Service-oriented Government Development (NUST): [Grant Number AE89630].