Limited land and resources, along with the overexploitation of tourism and multiple other factors, make peripheral and ultra-peripheral territories relevant cases for studying governance and sustainable development. This book presents case studies of European and Mediterranean regions to study regional development and territorial sustainability, strategic planning, and territorial management and governance. Written by experts in the field, the chapters contained herein provide the reader with a deep understanding, from several perspectives, of the dynamics, challenges, and opportunities of tourism in these specific territories.
Nature-based Tourism in Peripheral Areas provides a comprehensive examination of this form of tourism development as it occurs within alpine, forest, sub-polar, island, coastal and marine environments. This book goes beyond much of the debate surrounding ecotourism and the impacts of tourism in vulnerable environments to place nature-based tourism in a wider regional context, particularly when for many peripheral regions tourism remains one of the key opportunities for economic development. Therefore, a central theme that is present throughout many of the chapters is the role that nature-based tourism can play as the catalyst for larger regional development of regions. The book will serve as essential reading to senior undergraduate and postgraduate students taking courses in tourism and related degrees where the major focus is on tourism that occurs within peripheral regions. It will also serve as a key reference to researchers and professionals interested in the role of tourism as a regional development tool.
Food tourism is a topic of increasing importance for many destinations. Seen as a means to potentially attract tourists and differentiate destinations and attractions by means of the association with particular products and cuisines, food is also regarded as an opportunity to generate added value from tourism through local agricultural systems and supply chains and the local food system. From a regional development perspective this book goes beyond culinary tourism to also look at some of the ways in which the interrelationships between food and tourism contribute to the economic, environmental and social wellbeing of destinations, communities and producers. It examines the way in which tourism and food can mutually add value for each other from the fork to the plate and beyond. Looking at products, e.g. cheese, craft beer, noodles, wine; attractions, restaurants and events; and diverse regional examples, e.g. Champagne, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Margaret River, southern Sweden, and Tuscany; the title highlights how clustering, networking and the cultural economy of food and tourism and foodscapes adds value for regions. Despite the attention given to food, wine and culinary tourism no book has previously directly focused on the contribution of food and tourism in regional development. This international collection has contributors and examples from almost every continent and provides a comprehensive account of the various intersections between food tourism and regional development. This timely and significant volume will inform future food and tourism development as well as regional development more widely and will be valuable reading for a range of disciplines including tourism, development studies, food and culinary studies, regional studies, geography and environmental studies.
Tourism, one of the world’s leading industries, has propelled countries into recovery from economic recession. As a multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral, holistic, and systemic industry, tourism also uniquely placed to address the concerns of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While the relationships between tourism, sustainability, and sustainable development are the subjects of deep study, the direct positive effects of tourism on SDGs remain underdiscussed. The Handbook of Research on the Role of Tourism in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals is a collection of innovative research that explores sustainable practices within the tourism industry. While highlighting a broad range of topics including economic growth, education, and production patterns, this book is ideally designed for engineers, entrepreneurs, policymakers, executives, advocates, researchers, academicians, and students.
Local and regional development is an increasingly global issue. For localities and regions, the challenge of enhancing prosperity, improving wellbeing and increasing living standards has become acute for localities and regions formerly considered discrete parts of the ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ worlds. Amid concern over the definitions and sustainability of ‘development’, a spectre has emerged of deepened unevenness and sharpened inequalities in the development prospects for particular social groups and territories. Local and Regional Development engages and addresses the key questions: what are the principles and values that shape definitions and strategies of local and regional development? What are the conceptual and theoretical frameworks capable of understanding and interpreting local and regional development? What are the main policy interventions and instruments? How do localities and regions attempt to effect development in practice? What kinds of local and regional development should we be pursuing? This book addresses the fundamental issues of ‘what kind of local and regional development and for whom?’, frameworks of understanding, and instruments and policies. It outlines what a holistic, progressive and sustainable local and regional development might constitute before reflecting on its limits and political renewal. With the growing international importance of local and regional development, this book is an essential student purchase, illustrated throughout with maps, figures and case studies from Asia, Europe, and Central and North America.
Inland territories are currently of great interest in the tourism industry based on their natural and cultural resources, the surroundings and valuing of natural spaces, local traditions and cultures, ways of life, and the experiences of territories with authenticity. In this context, ecocultural resources are determining factors of development for the mobilization of economic and socio-cultural initiatives, promoting tourism and generating conditions of sustainability in inland territories. They are spaces of opportunity, maintaining resources and heritage with high preservation, enhancing new perceptions and forms of use, generating territorial cohesion, promoting self-esteem for local communities, and providing diverse and differentiated tourist experiences. The involvement of the community is decisive in valuing the destination, understanding local ecocultural realities, and developing the processes of preservation and service creation. It is considered a necessary approach for inclusion, protection, and aggregating the ecological and cultural binomial as a determinant for deeper knowledge of territorial realities and their specificities. Thus, sustainability and participation are crucial for the long-term future of inland tourism activities, with local governance assuming an important role in building tourism capacity, mobilizing resources, and streamlining entrepreneurial initiatives. Challenges and New Opportunities for Tourism in Inland Territories: Ecocultural Resources and Sustainable Initiatives provides knowledge on the trends for tourism in inland territories, territorial innovation, good governance practices, new projects in inland tourism, and other important aspects in the field. The topics covered include sustainability of local culture, cultural heritage, social responsibility, local governance, public policies, and innovation and tourism in inland territories. This book is essential for tourism management organizations, environmentalists, hotel managers, restaurateurs, tourism departments, practitioners, policymakers, public officials, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the innovative practices and initiatives in tourism with a specific focus on inland territories.
This contributed volume introduces the innovative landscapes and business models used in tourism entrepreneurship initiatives of Portugal and Spain. It provides benchmarks for entrepreneurial initiatives covering tourism services, place-branded tourism, social networks, spiritual tourism, cross-border tourism initiatives, and tourism in low-density regions. It also provides guidelines for future strategic actions to foster rural and sustainable development in alternative tourism destinations, following the Iberian experience.
The notion of "mobilities," when looked at from a practical point of view, turns out to cover different kinds of human activity. It is not surprising, then, that when approached from an academic perspective, it reveals enormous potential for interdisciplinary research, which has proven extremely attractive to many scholars from different continents, disciplines, and schools of academic inquiry. The scholars in this volume focus on the specific aspects of mobilities, namely, tourism and travel behavior, but approach them from a plethora of positions. Such a myriad of perspectives is bound to be challenging in methodological terms, but it seems there is a growing agreement as to the worthiness of this interdisciplinary research. By means of combining various approaches, researchers obtain access to a fascinating and increasingly ubiquitous phenomenon of contemporary human mobility.
In fifteen insightful new essays noted scholars in geography, economics, and public policy provide a comparative examination of the problems and prospects for development in frontier areas. Blending theory with case studies, the essays challenge the widely held notion that peripheral areas are marginal or backward.
