This book examines rural tourism across three different contexts, acknowledging the complexity of rural places. It applies a systematic comparative framework across nine case studies from Australia, Canada and Sweden. The case studies address the uniqueness of different rural spaces, while the framework incorporates many theoretical aspects from human geography including spatial, historic, institutional, demographic, socio-economic and network perspectives. In the course of applying this comparative case study framework, the book identifies numerous implications for planning and policy in rural settings. These contributions from international, expert authors help to identify the opportunities and challenges that affect rural regions, from places at the urban fringe to exotic remote spaces and taking in the ‘boring bits in between.’ Both the analysis and the framework used will be of value to scholars and students of rurality, tourism, regional development, rural policy, geography, and destination management. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of the rural context in developed countries and a robust conceptualization of rural tourism geographies.

Shifting global consumption patterns, tastes and attitudes towards food, leisure, travel and place have opened new opportunities for rural producers in the form of agritourism, ecotourism, wine, food and rural tourism and specialized niche market agricultural production for tourism. Agriculture is one of the oldest and most basic parts of the global economy, while tourism is one of the newest and most rapidly spreading. In the face of current problems of climate change, rising food prices, poverty and a global financial crisis, linkages between agriculture and tourism may provide the basis for new solutions in many countries. A number of challenges, nevertheless, confront the realization of synergies between tourism and agriculture. Tourism and Agriculture examines regional specific cases at the interface between tourism and agriculture, looking at the impacts of rural restructuring, and new geographies of consumption and production. To meet the need for a more comprehensive appreciation of the relationships and interactions between the tourism and agricultural economic sectors, this book consider the factors that influence the nature of these relationships; and explore avenues for facilitating synergistic relationships between tourism and agriculture. These relationships are examined in thirteen chapters through case studies from eastern and western Europe, Japan and the United States and from the developing countries of the Pacific, the Caribbean and Ghana and Mexico. Themes of diversification, economic development, and emerging new forms of production and consumption, are integrated throughout the entire book. This essential volume, built on original research, generates new insights into the relationships between tourism and agriculture and future economic rural development. Edited by leading researchers and academics in the field, this book will be of value to students, researchers and academics interested in tourism, agriculture and rural development.

This book examines rural tourism across three different contexts, acknowledging the complexity of rural places. It applies a systematic comparative framework across nine case studies from Australia, Canada and Sweden. The case studies address the uniqueness of different rural spaces, while the framework incorporates many theoretical aspects from human geography including spatial, historic, institutional, demographic, socio-economic and network perspectives. In the course of applying this comparative case study framework, the book identifies numerous implications for planning and policy in rural settings. These contributions from international, expert authors help to identify the opportunities and challenges that affect rural regions, from places at the urban fringe to exotic remote spaces and taking in the 'boring bits in between.' Both the analysis and the framework used will be of value to scholars and students of rurality, tourism, regional development, rural policy, geography, and destination management. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of the rural context in developed countries and a robust conceptualization of rural tourism geographies.

The last decade or so has witnessed a flourishing of research in rural geography; in particular, approaches which have developed socio-cultural perspectives on rural issues. This book brings together well-established and newer researchers to examine the position of rural social and cultural geography at the beginning of the 21st century and to suggest new research agendas. It offers critical evaluations of theoretical positions and advances, introduces new conceptual and methodological tools and reports on recent empirical work on a variety of topical issues in a number of countries. With diverse theoretical and empirical content, the book makes a valuable contribution to the development of research into changing social and cultural geographies of rurality in 'developed' or 'Western' countries.

This is a structured, edited book of nineteen Chapters which provides, from an inter-disciplinary perspective, latest thinking on, and practical case study exemplification of rural tourism and sustainable business development from Europe, North America, Australasia, the Middle East and Japan.

Geographical analysis of tourism spaces and places is advancing fast. In terms of human geography, the various recent academic ‘turns’ have led to fresh examination of existing debates and have advanced new theoretical ideas in geography that are more salient than ever for tourism studies. The Routledge Handbook of Tourism Geographies seeks to examine such recent developments by providing a state-of-the-art review of the field, documenting advances in research and evaluating different perspectives, approaches, techniques and contexts. The Routledge Handbook of Tourism Geographies considers recent disciplinary developments (including post-disciplinarily) in geography in relation to the study of tourism. It also analyzes the fledging relationships of the new mobilities paradigm, critical tourism studies and cultural political economy to tourism spaces and places, as well as acknowledging a spatial turn in poststructuralist social sciences more generally. In addition, it evaluates how postcolonial, feminist, sensory, performative and queer perspectives have diversified research in the tourism geographies field. Spatial analysis, time geography, placemaking and landscape concerns are addressed and issues such as transport, environmental discourses and development are also analyzed. Finally, the volume’s contributions highlight key areas for advancing research and map out the dimensions of future trajectories in tourism geographies in different theoretical and thematic contexts. Written by leading scholars in the tourism geographies field, this text will provide an invaluable resource for all those with an interest in tourism geographies, encouraging dialogue across disciplinary boundaries and areas of study.

There has been a phenomenal growth of backpacker tourism from the overland routes to India in the 1960s, to present-day backpacker tourism across the less developed world. As a result there has been significant economic development impacts of backpacker tourism upon local communities especially in areas with the largest concentrations of backpackers (South and South-East Asia particularly Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and India), as well as increasingly in Latin America. This volume provides a focused review of the economic development impacts of backpacker tourism in developing regions furthering knowledge on how backpacker tourism can play a crucial role in development strategies in these areas. First, it reviews the origins of the backpackers with a detailed examination of their "hippy" predecessors on the overland trail, before discussing the emergence of modern backpackers including social and cultural aspects, and how new technologies are changing their experience. It then analyses the powerful economic development impacts of backpackers on local host communities in cities and rural areas with a special focus on coastal destinations. Extensive case study material is used from backpacker destinations across Asia, Latin America and Africa. In doing so the book provides original insights into how backpacker tourism is highly significant for poverty alleviation and effective local development since it has strong linkages to the local economy, and less economic leakage than conventional tourism. Written by a leading academic in this area, this volume will be of interest to students of Tourism and Development Studies.