Tourism, Recreation and Trail Impacts - Tourism and Trails: Cultural, Ecological and Management Issues - page 161

For instance, wine and food routes can help wineries and farms increase
earnings beyond selling their wines and foodstuffs through traditional dis-
tribution channels in two primary ways. First, food trails can help an enter-
prise increase its income through direct sales (Nowers et al. , 2002). People
stopping by a cheese plant, a winery or an olive farm are inclined to purchase
products on-site for freshness and as markers of having been at the original
source (Swanson & Timothy, 2012). Second, participating in a planned route
can help farmers or winemakers secure additional economic opportunities,
such as u-pick activities, farmstays, picnics and hosting special events and
conferences (Brunori & Rossi, 2000; Nowers et al. , 2002).
These purposive routes are also important because they can result in
additional product purchases at a later date. On food and beverage trails,
people will sample various regional products and decide to buy them later in
their home markets or on the internet (Nowers et al. , 2002; Plummer et al. ,
2005). People utilizing literary trails might end up purchasing more books by
a particular author or cinema tickets for movies based upon landscapes they
visited. Thus, many trails and routes can be seen as conversion tools to get
people to purchase additional products based upon their exposure to destina-
tions and linked corridors.
Trail networks are especially important in rural and isolated contexts,
where the poorest populations are often located. Because of their linear nature
and their abilities to connect urban and rural areas, villages with other vil-
lages, or city neighborhoods with one another, their use has considerable
potential to distribute tourism earnings and employment to smaller towns
and villages, and to the poorer regions of a country (Busby, 1996; Lumsdon
et al. , 2004; Ndlovu & Rogerson, 2003; Wessell, 1997).
Just as route-based tourism can help regenerate the physical fabric of
older cities, as noted earlier, it can also help rejuvenate declining econo-
mies in industrial and post-industrial cities. Lemberg (2004) highlights the
potential for waterways to reinvigorate central city economies in areas where
central business districts and industrial centers are located adjacent to rivers
and lakeshores. The same is true for greenways and other urban footpaths
that run through older industrial areas. The tourism activities associated
with trails can stimulate direct and indirect service employment to replace
some of the jobs lost to deindustrialization.
As noted earlier, some people who live adjacent to disused railways fear
that the construction of rail-trails on or near their properties will decrease
their real estate values. This has been shown not to be the case in most
instances (Lemberg, 2004; Mills, 1990). On the contrary, strong evidence
suggests that trails enhance property values for individual landholders and
entire communities because of the improved image associated with places
that care about the environment, health and heritage. In fact, proximity to
trails is frequently used as a valuable selling point in property listings, with
trailside positions often being considered the most desirable locations