Abstract
By the continued island-mainland bridging works, increased consumer demand for seashore regions and fundamental improvement of accessibility to metropolitan areas, rural service industries in the island areas has been rapidly developed in the past decades, and also, their functions differentiated geographically. In most island areas, catering and accommodation sectors have been expanded, while traditional trading sector decreasing. And the dominant power of public sectors has been increased but private ones decreased. So, the overall development trends of service industries in island areas would be considered as unhealthy for rural economic sustainability. As a tentative solution, it may be proposed that through the functional specialization/differentiation and efficient linking/networking of rural service industries with multifunctionality of countryside capitals, their spatial cohesion would be strengthened.
