Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
offer an insight into the social implications of the spatially determined activities of
tourists and recreationalists in remote areas, where they may contribute to farm incomes.
A number of researchers have sought to diversify the focus of social and cultural
impact research to include concerns about the way in which tourism development may
change rural cultures (e.g. Byrne et al. 1993) and the consumption of rural environments
and cultures in relation to late modernity or the postmodern society which has a specific
relevance for studies in geography. The role of women in rural tourism has also belatedly
attracted interest as a highly seasonal and unstable economic activity, since tourism offers
one of the few employment opportunities to be taken up by women, which further
contributes to the marginal status of women in the rural workforce. Similar arguments are
also advanced by gender studies with a tourism component such as Redclift and Sinclair
(1991), though few geographers have examined these issues. Other studies by Edwards
(1991) and Keane et al. (1992) also indicate the importance of community participation in
tourism planning so that the local population, and women in particular, are not excluded
from the benefits of rural tourism development. A particularly sensitive issue is that of
indigenous people and traditional cultures, including land/resource rights and their roles
as performers and entrepreneurs (Butler and Hinch 1996). Increasingly native people are
becoming involved in tourism to help meet their own goals of independence and cultural
survival, yet tourism development carries special risks for them (C.M. Hall 1996a).
Considerable attention has been paid in the literature to residents' perceptions and
attitudes towards tourism (in common with recreation research), including studies of
small towns and rural areas (e.g. Allen et al. 1988; P.T.Long et al. 1990; Getz 1994a;
Johnson et al. 1994) but few geographers have undertaken longitudinal studies of rural
tourism's impact on the way communities view, interact, accept or deny tourism, though
examples in urban areas are also limited (see Page 1997a). However, as Butler and Clark
(1992) conclude, an
area where some research is needed is in the changing relationship
between tourism and its host community. Rarely is tourism the sole rural
economic activity. Over the last few decades the countryside has
witnessed major changes in its social composition, the main symptoms
being gentrification, new forms of social polarisation, and a domination
by the service class. More research is needed on the relationship between
the uneven social composition of the countryside, the spatially variable
development of tourism, and the problematic relationship between the
two.
(Butler and Clark 1992:180)
It is somewhat ironic that with rural geographers making such a major contribution to
rural studies, only a limited number have examined the implications in terms of social
theory as well as the empirical dimensions of tourism development.
