Applying configural analysis to explaining rural-tourism success recipes

Rural tourism is gaining importance in the tourism industry in recent years, and farmers, now rural hosts, are making a significant contribution to rural tourism development. This study examines the views of farmers on their new role as tourism hosts and investors in the activities necessary for success in rural tourism. Drawing on a comprehensive literature review, this study presents a conceptual model. The study uses a Panhellenic survey of 174 hosts in Greece and employs fuzzy set/Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to test them. The findings reveal recipes of collaboration and skills that support elicit rural tourism hosts' chances of being successful. The results support eight of twelve hypotheses, and four receive partial confirmation.