New Directions in Rural Tourism

Lesley Roberts, Derek Hall, Mitchell Morag, Lesley Roberts, Derek Hall, Mitchell Morag

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781138250284
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351915014
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

Although there has been an increasing interest in rural tourism in terms of research, training and teaching in recent years, its conceptualization and the relationships between concept and strategy are still poorly represented and not well understood. The need for such a critical understanding is particularly crucial as rural areas experience rapid change, and as tourism is viewed as a key element of development and regeneration. This volume provides an interdisciplinary approach to new directions in rural tourism, drawing on the latest conceptual thinking and evolving strategic roles. It brings together case study exemplification from the UK, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Spain, Slovenia, Poland, New Zealand and the Caribbean. It debates such key issues as sustainability and niche marketing. The book thus provides accessible material drawn from a range of environmental and cultural contexts and focuses attention on the nature and interrelationships between local and global issues in rural tourism and development.

Part 1
Context

Chapter 1
Tourism and the Countryside: Dynamic Relationships

Derek Hall, Morag Mitchell and Lesley Roberts

Introduction

Rural tourism development attracted increasing interest in the 1990s and a growing literature has contributed to our understanding of it as an evolving phenomenon. According to Long and Lane (2000), rural tourism has moved into its second phase of development, its first having been characterised by growth in participation, product and business development, and partnership. Its second is predicted to be more complex, and is likely to be, given the questions that remain regarding its place in policy, its integration in practice, and its dynamic role within the restructuring countryside and within wider tourism development processes. This introduction aims to establish a context for the subsequent and more focused chapters that follow by outlining issues relating to, dimensions of, and questions surrounding the dynamic nature of rural tourism and recreation.

Tourism and Recreation in Rural Areas: Key Issues

Estimates often suggest that tourism in rural areas may make up 10-25 per cent of all forms of tourism activity (e.g. EuroBarometer, 1998). But a long recognised analytical constraint is the absence of systematic statistical sources for 'rural tourism' (Lane, 1994). This is not surprising given that there may be no difference either in terms of location or activity, between 'rural tourism' and 'countryside recreation'. Many rural tourists and recreationalists are excursionists (day visitors) rather than those making overnight stays (the extent of whom can to some extent be measured in terms of bed-nights). Rural tourism's very diversity and fragmentation sees tens of thousands of enterprises and public initiatives active across Europe, some of which are listed with local or regional bodies such as tourism boards and authorities, while others are not. Overarching these issues are often fundamental differences in national definition and enumeration: one country may include only farm and nature dimensions in its conception of 'rural tourism', while another will consider many economic activities located outside of urban areas.

In many parts of the world, rural areas have long provided the setting for recreation and tourism activities, which have not always been explicitly considered or branded as 'rural'. In recent decades, however, there has been a greater industry awareness of a requirement to segment and brand various aspects of tourism and recreation just at a time when the relationships between such activities and their rural contexts have been changing and becoming more complex. Such complexity and change in rural sector relationships reflect both the dynamic and often uncertain economic and social environment in which rural development processes take place; and the growing global importance and diversity of tourism and recreation activities, with the pressures and inter-linkages (global-local, urban rural) which that brings.

Most notably, recreation and tourism activities in a number of rural settings have been dramatically transformed from being relatively passive and minor elements in the landscape to become active and significant agents of environmental, economic and social change. Such changes have attracted attention from local, regional, national and supranational policy makers. However, this is not to suggest any consistent approach to, or agreement upon the nature, development and significance of tourism and recreation in rural areas.

What is clear is that a number of key demand factors have raised interest in rural areas, larger numbers of people are visiting rural areas, and the recreational activities undertaken in rural areas are increasing and diversifying, raising issues of competing traditional/new, passive/active pursuits and the need for adequate planning and management to cope with contrasting demands from mass and niche requirements. In the face of homogenised globalism and what may be increasingly impersonal and unsafe urban environments, rural tourism is often perceived as able to meet growing demands for personal contact, individualism, authenticity and heritage, said to reflect increasing levels of education, health consciousness, and the development of accessible high performance outdoor equipment (Long and Lane, 2000). Coupled to improved transport and communication technologies which themselves have rendered true remoteness a rare quality and an almost unique selling point - and the residential demand for access to rural areas from both working and retired people, tourism and recreation have become an important part of a range of opportunities variously holding out the promise of economic, social, cultural and environmental enhancement.

Tourism is widely perceived as being of considerable economic and social benefit to rural areas through the income and infrastructural developments it may bring particularly to marginal and less economically developed regions. It can provide organic, relatively low capital, economic growth for locally owned business and offers a potential alternative both to traditional rural activities and to rural workers themselves (Bollman and Bryden, 1997; Long and Lane, 2000). It can of course also stimulate in-migration and the attraction of urban-based entrepreneurs who may merely siphon off any benefits away from the local rural area. Nonetheless, considerable attention has been given in the European Union to the support and enhancement of rural tourism initiatives (Mormont, 1987; Bethemont, 1994; Nitsch and der Straaten, 1995; Hjalager, 1996; Priestley et al., 1996), within the wider context of rural development. But, national and supranational organisations, government views and industry perceptions may differ or even conflict. Notably, industry vested interests may result in over-inflated expectations for rural tourism development such as the World Tourism Organisation's claim of 'Rural tourism to the rescue of Europe's countryside' (WTO, 1996; Butler et al., 1998). Unmet expectations can easily lead not only to disappointment but to disillusionment and may actually accelerate processes of economic decline and out-migration.

Impacts of Tourism and Recreation in Rural Areas

Many parts of Europe have experienced a century, and North America some eighty years, of rural decline (Long and Lane, 2000). While an economic revitalisation of rural areas is often sought, few rural dwellers, either new or recent in-migrants, would wish to change dramatically the physical character and ethos of their landscapes by encouraging the siting of a gambling casino, prison or nuclear power station. While those activities may appear extreme, tourism, often viewed by many rural regions as one of the few opportunities to enhance the local economy, may have equally profound impacts on its countryside contexts. The challenges of rural restructuring, the major potential threats to rural environments and the dynamic social composition of many rural areas, require an understanding and management of rural tourism which is firmly integrated into an appreciation of the (often urban derived) dynamic social, economic, political, cultural, psychological and environmental processes shaping both reality and our social construction of 'the rural'.

In contributing to successful rural development tourism needs to be employed as part of a portfolio of strategies. Tourism and recreation is not an appropriate development tool for all rural areas, but factors of comparative advantage will vary considerably from one type of rural area to another. Rural tourism is usually best suited to act as a complement to an existing thriving and diverse rural economy: within an already weak economy it can create income and employment inequalities if not complemented with other employment generating development processes Butler and Clark, 1992). Further, a number of factors can reduce its economic effectiveness. These include income leakages, volatility, a declining multiplier, low pay, imported labour, the limited number of entrepreneurs in rural areas, and the conservatism of rural investors (Lane, 1994).

Evaluation of rural tourism's development impacts raises such questions as what are the trade-offs between the social and environmental (negative) impacts and economic benefits? How far, for example, do rural designations of special area status designed to protect environments actually act to attract and focus tourists in self-fulfilling honeypots? Can the benefits to one sector (e.g. nature-based tourism assisting species conservation) be realistically measured against the negative impacts felt in a related sector (e.g. nature-based tourists' actual disturbance to wildlife)? Most tourists in rural areas are urbanites, so who benefits and who loses from the development of tourism and recreation in rural areas? Certainly the debate over the mutual misunderstanding between town and country has seen increasing politicisation of the perceived conflict between urban and rural values and aspirations. How far are such benefits and losses set within wider social and economic processes of unequal access to resources and opportunities? To what extent do our own roles, values and vested interests influence our perceptions of whether impacts are positive or negative?

The dynamic relationship between tourism and recreation and other aspects of the rural economy, society and environment is a fundamental underlying theme of this book. In summary, the contribution of tourism to rural development can include:

• revitalising and reorganising local economies, and improving the quality of life;
• supplementary income for farming, craft and service sectors, although most types of diversification render a relatively small contribution to average farm business income (e.g. McNally, 2001);
• opening up the possibility of new social contacts, especially in breaking down the isolation of remoter areas and social groups (Gladstone and Morris, 1998, 1999);
• providing opportunities to re-evaluate heritage and its symbols, 'natural' resources of landscape and the accessibility of open space, and the identity of rural places;
• assisting polices of environmental, economic and social sustainability; and
• helping to realise the economic value of specific, quality based production of foodstuffs, as well as of unused and abandoned buildings, unique scenery, spaces and culture.

Taking the last point, a growing interest in speciality foods, regional gastronomy, healthier eating and the promotion of local identity has seen the growth of food tourism as an important element in embedding rural tourism within local economic back-linkages while reinforcing a local quality image (e.g. Ilbery and Kneafsey, 1998, 1999; Brunori and Rossi, 2000; Murdoch et al., 2000; Sage, 2003). However, Winter (2003) argues that the turn to local food may encompass several different forms of agriculture, contrasting rural economic contexts and a variety of consumer motivations.

But tourism can be a relatively fragile element of rural development:

• inward investment, new firm creation and employment generation may be limited owing to the small scale and dispersed nature of the industry which tends to offer low returns on investment;
• it requires many skills to be successful;
• it tends to be in the hands often of those rural entrepreneurs, such as farmers, small town and village business and local officials, who often do not have specific training in tourism;
• it involves many micro-enterprises;
• capital is often in short supply; and
• the time scale for success is usually short (Cavaco, 1995; Lane, 1998).

Rural Change and Restructuring

Restructuring processes have been apparent across most industrialised countries since at least the 1970s, and rural areas have not been exempt from significant economic, social and political change. Prior to the Second World War, the rural systems of most developed countries retained a degree of homogeneity and distinctiveness, despite the growth of commercial agriculture. This is often no longer the case as the weakening of former structures has been brought about as the result of several dimensions of restructuring:

• delayed reform of inconsistent protectionist subsidy systems such as the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which have distorted the structural and spatial dimensions of agricultural production (Jenkins et al., 1998);
• the inability of many marginal areas to shift to a more capital intensive economy (Brown and Hall, 2000);
• the selective industrialisation of much of the remaining agricultural sector;
• the pressures of urban and ex-urban development (Butler and Hall, 1998a, 1998b); and
• political and economic transformation in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe raising policy issues contrasting to, yet interrelated with, those of Western Europe, in the latter case in terms of both the adoption of Western 'advice' and models, and the aspiration for integration through EU accession (Hall and Danta, 2000; Hall, 2004).

Factors which have been responsible for profound changes in agriculture and for the people who depend on it, have also contributed to rural areas' attractiveness for many (ex-urbanites) to live and work. Mechanisation has drastically reduced agrarian labour requirements, stimulated continuing rural to urban or rural to rural migration, and has rendered both residential and non-residential properties available for new uses or for the same uses by different residents with often markedly different values and life-styles. At the same time, the trend towards a greater centralisation of governmental and commercial activities has contributed to a reduction or elimination of much service provision in rural settlements.

The combination of these two factors can result in villages no longer able to function, as decreasing numbers of farms and diminishing agrarian populations reduce the labour force and weaken the local community's ability to sustain the previous range of goods and services. In certain rural areas, particularly those where agribusiness does not have a dominant presence, rural repopulation by non-farm populations may take place. Stimulated by a demand for primary or second homes suitable for retirement, commuting and leisure purposes, such repopulation has contributed to notable demographic and socio-economic change in a number of rural regions.

The level of social integration resulting from these processes may be crucial for the health and self-perception (and thus the 'imaging') of rural areas. New, ex urban inhabitants of rural towns and villag...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• List of Abbreviations
• Dedication
• PART 1: CONTEXT
• PART 2: CONCEPTUALISATION
• PART 3: EXPERIENCE
• PART 4: STRATEGY AND MANAGEMENT
• PART 5: CONCLUSION
• Index