Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Plate 6.3:
Otago, New Zealand.
Tourism and the development of new
agricultural industries may often be
interrelated. Vineyard development in
Central Otago has not only been
important for tourism development and
amenity migration in the area but also
benefited from cellar door sales.
recreational use in rural areas, Patmore examined the routes and range and impact of trips
by users within the countryside and, at the micro level, the assessment of site patterns and
activities yielded detailed insights into rural recreational behaviour. The interest in
second homes was also developed, though arguably this is one clear area of overlap
between rural tourism and recreation as it attracted extensive research in the 1970s (e.g.
Coppock 1977a, 1982). In fact G.M.Robinson (1990) summarises the main concerns for
rural areas and how the geographer's interest in spatial concerns have largely remained
unchanged since the 1960s and 1970s:
various studies have shown that, increasingly, people's leisure time is
being used in a space-extensive way: a move from passive recreation to
participation. Growth has been fastest in informal pursuits taking the form
of day or half-day trips to the countryside with the rise in the ownership of
private cars, the urban population has discovered the recreational potential
of both the countryside on its doorstep and also more remote and less
occupied areas.
(Robinson 1990:260)
For managers, the challenge is in equating demand with supply. As Owens (1984:159)
rightly observed, 'research in terms of people's leisure behaviour [saw]…a need to
emphasise social science perspectives as a means to providing a more explicit task of
managing use with supply'. The development of participation studies (e.g. the Outdoor
Recreation Resources Review Commission in the USA and the General Household
Survey in Britain) provided a new direction. Here the argument developed was that
