Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
6
Planning and Developing
Trails and Routes
Introduction
This chapter examines the planning and development of trails. Planning
and development have received considerable attention in the tourism schol-
arly literature, the former addressing tourism planning in general (Inskeep,
1991; Hall, 2008; Dredge & Jenkins, 2007), the latter often focused on types
of tourism (e.g. Hall & Boyd, 2005) or broad geographic regions (e.g. Sharpley
& Telfer, 2008). Much of the literature on trails and routes focuses on how
they have been planned and subsequently developed. This chapter provides
a critical review of a rather disparate literature on this topic, categorizing the
extant literature within three broad areas.
First, the chapter addresses how a number of route programs have been
planned and developed as a result of government policies, including related
legislation. The examples cited are dominated by developed countries. The
relative absence of policy analysis and planning documentation within the
developing world is perhaps more a reflection that their wider policy actions
do not consider routes and trails as part of their wider tourism planning and
development strategies. This does not suggest that there are no trail pro-
grams in less-developed nations, it simply reflects the dearth of knowledge
about such actions and a need to address trail development policies and plan-
ning actions more broadly throughout the world.
Second, planning and development concepts related to trails and routes
are addressed, including planning models and processes, the issue of trail
funding, the importance of using volunteers in trail operations and the need
to acquire land-use rights. Development thinking that is both participatory
and collaborative is addressed. The important issue of 'theming' trails is also
examined with use of an empirical case study.
The third dimension of this chapter is understanding how trails are
designed. Here attention is given to the relevance of aspects such as location,
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