Socio-Economic Factors and Rural Competitive Advantage The Moderating Role of Economic Literacy

This study aims to determine the factors influencing the community behavior in improving competitive rural tourism as well as understanding
the role of economic literacy in mediating socio-economic indicators and rural competitive advantage. This research followed an explanatory
research to examine the relationship between variables including socio-economic variables and rural tourism competitive advantage. The
data was gathered by conducting observations and interviews with tourism businesses, stakeholders, and the local village government,
and related agencies as respondents. Furthermore, the data were analyzed following inductive and descriptive statistics. The findings
indicated that, from all variables used, solely the environmental impact variable did not affect economic literacy and the competitive
advantage of rural tourism. The moderating variables showed that the economic literacy mediates the economic impact on rural tourism
competitive advantage. In addition, socio-cultural impacts on rural competitive advantage tourism, and the stakeholder involvement affects
rural competitive advantage tourism. However, economic literacy failed in mediating between environmental impacts on rural competitive
advantage tourism. This is due to the increasing understanding of the economy of the community around the tourist attractions it will
increase the business around the tourist attractions that have an impact on environmental damage around the tourist attractions.