Competitive advantage model of rural tourism studies during COVID-19 pandemic era

ABSTRACT

The tourism development is running rapidly in line with the increase in people's income which shifts from the lower class to the middle class which has a positive impact on the tourism development, both natural tourism, maritime tourism, as well as rural tourism which has become a trend of tourist visits so as to improve the community's welfare. Although the conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic era, the tourism sector has decreased, but in line with government policies that have opened the tourism sector with strict of health protocol so that tourism able to operate again with strict of health protocol requirements. Development of rural tourism based on local culture and a sustainable environment by involving stakeholders, namely local communities, government and the private sector who can participate in increasing tourism, especially in rural areas. The population in this study is all parties of Small and Medium Enterprises or communities in rural tourism in Lerep Village and Kandangan Village, Semarang District. Those sample are amount 54 people and sampling techniques, namely purposive sampling and analysis techniques by using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) Partial Least Square or PLS. This study aims to build tourism activity during covid 19 conditions by using the Theory of Competitive Advantage and Resource Based View (RBV), this study applies 2 Hypotheses, namely Hypothesis 1 explains a positive and significant influence of Local Community involvement on Sustainable Rural Tourism, and Hypothesis 2 explains a positive and significant influence between Sustainable Rural Tourism on Competitive Advantage.