Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
rather than the public sector. Thus Cloke
(1993:58) contends that 'the informal and free
forms of outdoor recreation in the countryside are
gradually being replaced for many by a more
formal, attraction-based, day out in which the
countryside experience is packaged and paid for.'
He quotes the example of Powergen's Rheidol
hydro-electric scheme in Dyfed, Wales, promoted
as a 'great day out' and offering (for the price of
admission):
Box 18.2
The recreation opportunities spectrum
Zoning has frequently been implemented following a
formal assessment of a potential recreational site.
Indeed, site assessment has been a particularly popular
avenue of research in North America, for example using
the recreation opportunities spectrum (ROS) to combine
the requirements of visitors with the constraints and
characteristics of a site (Figure 18.1). The spectrum,
employed to allocate uses in a designated area via a
zoning system, ranges across the various combinations
of physical, biological, social and managerial conditions.
It recognises that each situation offers a range of
opportunities for recreation, but with visitor numbers
likely to increase as wilderness gives way to some form
of development. This development and visitor influx then
has to be managed, usually by placing restrictions on
visitors' movements (van Oosterzee 1984). The ROS can
help to identify the diversity of opportunities, but it does
have limitations, especially as it plays down the
importance of biophysical features, which are the natural
attractions that are often the main draw for visitors
(Hammitt and Cole 1987).
•
a visit to Rheidol Power Station Information
Centre with its exhibition, video room,
souvenir shop and refreshments;
•
a tour of the power station and its fascinating
fish farm;
•
a picnic at the lakeside picnic area;
•
a drive around the scenic upland reservoirs;
•
fishing for trout in one of the lakes;
•
enjoyment of a romantic view of the floodlit
Felin Newydd weir.
This is one example of the growing importance
of the marketing of rural recreation as a form of
countryside management, with the repeated use
of key icons or symbols in the advertising
brochures: endeavouring to attract custom by
using words such as landscape, nature, history,
family orientation, craft and country 'fayre'
(Cloke 1992; 1993; Cloke and Goodwin 1992).
This is the effective means by which commercial
recreation/ tourist enterprises are attracting the
urban population to spend time (and money) in
the countryside. Its advance has been furthered by
the process of farm diversification, stimulated by
falling incomes from traditional farming activities,
as farmers offer paying tourists the chance to
spend time on farms, lured by attractions such as a
working farm, themed park experience, waterfowl
centres, rare breeds, farm museums, country sports,
woodland parks, butterfly farms and shire horse
centres (see Plate 18.2).
Marketing has increasingly become a
management tool, by selling the 'right' areas and
sites to visitors. This involves increasing the
provision of information made available to
recreationists while targeting certain types of
information at particular people. Analysis of this
