4.1.3. Factors Affecting Resident's Energy Literacy Change

Along with the development of local tourism, locals have acquired more energy literacy in their daily tourism practices. According to the field data, the factors influencing residents' change in energy literacy are multiple. Both external and internal factors contribute to the improvement of residents' energy literacy in tourism development. On the external side, economic development, communication with external tourists, diversified access to knowledge, and government support are all factors that have contributed to the change in energy literacy among Ping-an residents. Specifically, economic development has

offered more possibilities for residents to choose new energy sources; communication with external tourists, especially pro-environmental visitors, has allowed them to understand that only sustainable environments can attract more tourists; the widespread use of mobile phones has also enabled residents to learn more about energy knowledge from the internet; as for government support, it includes investment in tourism infrastructure, attracts investment from outside, promotion resident's energy knowledge, and other related policy. For example, the local government's continuous promotion of energy knowledge in villages, such as fire and electricity safety, knowledge of energy conservation and environmental protection, etc. All these external factors have contributed to the improvement of residents' energy literacy.

In addition to these extrinsic reasons for promoting energy literacy, the key incentive for local people to become more energy-literate lies in their initiative in tourism development, also referred to as internal factors by residents. First, the goal of achieving better tourism development and poverty alleviation has led them to take the initiative to address the local energy problem. Before tourism, Ping'an Village was extremely isolated and poor. Up until 1992, it was still dependent on relief to survive; the income of residents was mainly from farming and working outside the village [66]. Since the development of tourism from 1993, tourism has gradually become the main source of economic income, including catering, accommodation, shopping, tour guide services, and ticket dividends [66]. By 2002, the villagers' annual per capita income reached about 2000 RMB. Up to 2011, it rose to 13,200 RMB [81]. By 2019 the villagers' annual per capita income had reached 5000 RMB just from the ticket income dividends, with some medium hotel annual income may reach 200,000 RMB. In this process, in order to get out of poverty and achieve wealth through tourism, they made efficient use of a combination of external resources, such as the government, developers, and new sources of energy in technological development, which helped them solve local problems effectively.

Second, the initiatives of residents have a positive impact on their energy literacy. As residents take the initiative to identify various energy problems that exist in local tourism, they actively seek information from the outside to solve local problems. By taking the initiative to learn and communicate with the outside, their energy literacy is enhanced. Such as the resident manager S17 mentioned,

*"In the off-season, several of our village committees have gone to other scenic spots around the country to learn, to see how others are doing, to see how people are solving the problems we have, and we often go out to see, which is very helpful to us. Sometimes we also watch Tik Tok and read a lot of relevant knowledge on the internet. We also have two people in the village who specialize in live-streaming terraces, they introduce our beautiful terraces to people outside, and sometime also share and show the balance of our natural ecosystem here."*
