| dc.description.abstract | Since COVID-19, people have suffered tremendous impacts in all aspects of their lives and work,
with subtle changes in their environment preferences. The rural areas, with their natural green
space, low density, and leisurely habitat, have played an important role after the pandemic and
are widely favored by people. Research on rural environments after COVID-19 has received much
attention. In the wake of the pandemic, people’s needs for the environment have changed not
only in terms of physical space, but also in terms of psychological needs. To address the issue of
adaptability and resiliency of the future tourism development of the rural areas, this study takes
the real subjective feelings of rural visitors as the evaluation standard, and takes the rural
gastronomic tourism environment as the research object. We analyzed a sample of 14,373 images
and 324,676 comments in Chinese posted by 3484 visitors on social media to explore whether and
how people’s preferences for rural environments have changed since the pandemic. Findings
revealed significant differences in preference for the rural gastronomic tourism environment
factors before and after the pandemic. There is variability in environment preferences depending
on different gender, environment flexibility and the region. From the perspective of the rural
gastronomic tourism environment, the research results provide suggestions for rural planning and
rural tourism sustainability, and provide feasible paths for sustainable development and con
servation of rural landscapes oriented to human needs, to enhance the resilience and sustain
ability of rural environments in the future. | vi |
