Cultural tourism has emerged as a vital alternative in rural areas, particularly in Kenya. However, its socioeconomic impacts on local communities are not fully understood. This paper examines how community attitudes and involvement assist the growth of sustainable tourism in Bungoma County, rural Western Kenya. Using a sample of 320 respondents and partial least square-structured equation modeling (PLS-SEM), this study examined key socioeconomic indicators, including employment opportunities, income generation, and community engagement. The economic and cultural importance of tourism for rural development is demonstrated by these metrics. Our results show that support from tourism is strongly influenced by favorable community perception. This study recommends tailored socioeconomic strategies, such as promoting cultural entrepreneurship, enhancing local infrastructure, and fostering collaborative efforts between stakeholders, to diversify rural economies. The novel approach of this research provides critical insights into community-based tourism and presents significant results, contributing to the broader literature on rural socioeconomic development.

Indonesia generally has better food security performance, but the extent of food access at the commodity and regional level still needs to be questioned. The present study examines the causes of purchasing frequency and dietary habits of beef (access to beef) in eastern Indonesia, a low-income region. The variables under study are related to Turner’s and colleagues’ model, so the other aim of the present study is to prove the workability of the model. This research used a survey by randomly distributing an online questionnaire from July to October 2023 to 408 meat consumers/buyers in Indonesia’s western part (high-income region) and eastern part (low-income region). Data collected from the survey were analysed mainly using the structural equation modelling technique using RStudio. This study discovered that people in eastern Indonesia purchase beef less frequently, which is caused by low incomes and high prices. People in east Indonesia also have irregular beef consumption habits contributed by infrequent purchasing, low incomes, and high prices. Moreover, the extended model proposed by Turner and colleagues is workable under a moderation test with limited variables (e.g., price, income, geographical factor, and food purchase). Besides the findings, this study has made scientific contributions to food accessibility and consumer behaviour, developed an extended model by Turner and colleagues, and conducted a comparative study on beef consumption (between marginal and non-marginal regions and between coastal and non-coastal regions). The efforts to improve accessibility to food will contribute to achieving zero goals under the Sustainable Development Goals.

Development goals, priorities and strategies need to be based on available (local) resources, which are identified as either comparative advantages or uniform development goals at certain planning level. Core development policies of the region take centrum-periphery theory as the primary approach in planning allocating development funds. In this paper authors developed four settlement clusters based on their local resources (HCSO, AC, T-STAR database, 44 variables, cross section 2018). Few Strong and capable cities (n=31) are accompanied by mainly Agricultural villages (n=155) and there are settlements (n=170) with Concentrated capacities. But majority of the region’s area (n=299) has Limited resources. The classification of the settlements can be used in gravity models that test the pull effect of central cities on the complex development of the surrounding settlements.

The Hungarian Government decided on the establishment of the South Transdanubian Economic Development Zone. The identification of the areas formed by clustering settlements of similar features will help better target development goals and funds to the region. The development concepts of the counties (forming the region) were reviewed and each of the 656 settlements of the region were put into categories. The categories were formed according to the county concepts; classification of the space followed all of the area classifications mentioned in them: development goals, priorities, strategic categories or sectoral targets. It has been found that 291 settlements have not been targeted by the county concepts at all. Further 177 ones are classified as deprived areas either because of their peripheral situation or their underdevelopment status by law. 62 settlements are mentioned as ones to be targeted with either economic development programmes or classified as growth zones. The latter category consists of 26 settlements, which are either growth, industrial, innovative or logistic centres according to the development concepts. Tourism related developments are targeted and may be outbreak points in 176 settlements. The threat to the development of rural areas due to shrinking medium sized cities must be addressed. Our review and classification of South Transdanubian Region’s settlements adds the value of the multifaceted approach through the application of the county development concepts.