Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
organisations
development include local or regional tourist organisations,
heritage conservation groups, mainstreet groups, tour guide
programmes, or helping to establish a local farmstay or
homestay association
• Technical
assistance
Government can provide technical assistance and information
to businesses with regard to planning and development
requirements
Expenditure • Expenditure and
contracting
This is a common method for government to achieve policy
objectives as government can spend money directly on specific
activities. This may include the development of infrastructure,
such as roads, or it may include mainstreet beautification
programmes. Contracting can be used as a means of supporting
existing local businesses or encouraging new ones
• Investment or
procurement
Investment may be directed into specific businesses or projects,
while procurement can be used to help provide businesses with
a secure customer for their products
• Public enterprise
When the market fails to provide desired outcomes,
governments may operate their own businesses, e.g. rural or
regional development corporations or enterprise boards. If
successful, such businesses may then be sold off to the private
sector
• Public-private
partnerships
Government may enter into partnership with the private sector
in order to develop certain products or regions; these may take
the form of a corporation which has a specific mandate to
attract business to a certain region, for example
• Monitoring and
evaluation
Government may allocate financial resources to monitor rural
economic, environmental and socio-economic indicators. Such
measures not only may be valuable to government to evaluate
the effectiveness and efficiency of rural tourism development
objectives but also can be a valuable source of information to
the private sector as well
• Promotion
Government may spend money on promoting a region to
visitors either with or without financial input from the private
sector. Such promotional activities may allow individual
businesses to reallocate their own budgets, reducing planned
expenditure on promotion
Categories
Instruments
Examples
Financial
incentives
• Pricing
Pricing measures may be used to encourage appropriate behaviour or
to stimulate demand, e.g. use of particular walking trails, lower
camping or permit costs
• Taxes and
charges
Governments may use these to encourage appropriate behaviours by
both individuals and businesses, i.e. pollution charges. Taxes and
charges may also be used to help fund infrastructure development,
e.g. regional airports
• Grants and
loans
Seeding money may be provided to businesses to encourage product
development or to encourage the retention of heritage and landscape
features
• Subsidies and
tax incentives
Although subsidies are often regarded as creating inefficiencies in
markets they may also be used to encourage certain types of
