Constructing the green supply chain for rural tourism in China : perspective of front-back stage decoupling

Abstract

Rural tourism serves as an important engine for rural development, but also brings environmental pressure. The balance between sustainability and local economic benefits is critical to rural tourism development in developing countries. Incorporating the theories of green supply chain and front-back stage decoupling, this paper proposes a new model of green tourism supply chain for rural tourism to relieve the dilemma between economic efficiency and environmental sustainability. Back-stage functions have been decoupled from individual rural tourism service units to form shared service centers, which centralize the provision of back-stage functions and generate an independent tier of suppliers in the green Tourism Supply Chain (TSC). Field practice experiences relating to green TSC construction and operation are also discussed. The new structure of green supply chain shows positive environmental and economic effects of rural tourism. It increases the tourism business efficiency without sacrificing the local environment. The paper intends to present a new perspective and explores a new research path to green supply chain research in tourism and other service industries which have been previously limited in manufacturing framework and provide some insights into tourism destination practice.