Rural tourism destinations are becoming places where stakeholders encounter dialogue and conflict amid a multifunctional transformation underway in rural areas. The land-use conflict has increasingly become a prominent issue since stakeholders have different demands. This paper constructs a conflict- coordination theoretical research framework and internal correlation mechanism concerning stakeholders' cognition of multifunctional spaces in rural tourism destinations. Taking Shancha Village as the case study, the paper identifies the potential points of conflict utilizing density mapping and different models for responding to conflict situations. The coordination among different multifunctional demands was analyzed based on the Grounded Theory and the DEMATEL method. The findings are as follows. First, rural residential areas perform agricultural and living functions. The village's five major scenic spots have economic, travel and leisure functions, while the whole village plays an ecological role and function. The agriculture of this village is restricted within a certain radius. Place-based transportation and an industrial layout around the scenic area are characteristics. Furthermore, there is an overlap in production-living-ecological spatial cognition. Second, the distribution of high values areas in the Overall Preference Difference (OPD) shows that the agricultural function distribution depends on agricultural production conditions and the population density of settlements. As for economic function, the economic spillover effect of scenic spot development is differentiated at different levels of development. Moreover, transportation in residential areas influences the distribution of the living function. Spatially, the ecological function is mainly distributed in the Huangshan Scenic Area, and tourism resources constrain the distribution of travel and leisure functions. Third, regarding conflict points, agricultural function conflicts are concentrated on arable land and garden plots due to differences in the awareness of production layout, facilities and economic benefits in mountainous areas. Economic functions are concentrated on land for commercial services, whether or not for tourism purposes, caused by differences in cognition of industrial land management, construction land scarcity and tourism revenue and dividends. Furthermore, the difference in awareness of infrastructure allocation, quality of living conditions and commodification of rural spaces leads to the distribution of living functions in rural homesteads, regions equipped with service facilities and water regions. Moreover, due to the gap in the cognition of environmental regulation, ecological conservation and ecological benefits, ecological functions are concentrated in water, woodlands and some agricultural land. In addition, ravel and leisure functions are distributed in scenic spots and tourist roads due to differences in the cognition of development methods, transportation accessibility and tourism revenue. Fourth, in terms of coordination between multifunctional demands, living functions are witnessing overall coordinated development. Residents' interests, agricultural production and sales, and the demands of enterprises for dividends and a better ecological environment are the leading factors affecting the coordinated development of agricultural, economic and ecological functions. Demand by government and enterprises for a tourism market and residents' need for tourism revenue have become the dominant factors that affect travel and leisure functions. Hence, the conflict- coordination mechanism and path of multifunctional spatial cognitive conflict are constructed, satisfying stakeholders' demands as a starting point. © 2023 Science Press. All rights reserved.
