How Does Rural Tourism Enhance Rural Residents’ Well-Being? Moderating Effects of Organizational Conditions and Leadership

Rural tourism is regarded as a significant pathway to enhance the well-being of rural households. However, existing research has yet to systematically examine the moderating role of governance conditions. Using data from the China Rural Revitalization Survey 2022 (CRRS), this study empirically investigates the influence and underlying mechanisms of rural tourism on the subjective well-being of rural residents, employing OLS as the baseline analysis, applying IV to address endogeneity, and using PSM for robustness checks. The findings reveal the following: First, rural tourism enhances the subjective well-being of rural residents. Second, organizational conditions and leadership conditions play a positive moderating role in the impact of rural tourism on rural residents’ well-being. Third, the positive impact of rural tourism on the subjective well-being of rural residents varies significantly across villages, and the realization of this effect is highly contingent on a village’s institutional planning capabilities and the administrative experience of village cadres. The marginal contribution of this study lies in revealing the boundary conditions for rural tourism to enhance rural residents’ well-being and uncovering the moderating mechanism of the governance conditions in the relationship between rural tourism and well-being.