Introduction - Tourism and Trails: Cultural, Ecological and Management Issues - page 14

In rural areas, trails, footpaths and other countryside corridors are usu-
ally seen as potentially lucrative from a number of perspectives. First, they
can be seen as being a salient tool for conserving rural landscapes via policy
directions and building awareness and appreciation through interpretation
and experience among the general public. In this sense, many public and
quasi-public agencies that oversee rural trails view their designation and
maintenance as crucial tools for capacity control, preserving the rural idyll
and creating an appreciation for the exurban way of life (Gilbert, 1989). Most
rural trails can be found in national parks or other protected public lands,
although in the UK and other parts of Europe, they are very common on
private land as well, with right of access laws allowing the public onto pri-
vate lands for walking and hiking (Millward, 1993; Scott, 1986; Wolfe, 1998).
There is considerable overlap between urban and rural trails, as many of
them lead from the countryside into cities or towns and vice versa, especially
if they are found within the peri-urban space which is often referred to as
the rural-urban fringe.
Networks
Another concept in understanding long-distance trails, large-scale travel
corridors and international routes is networks. Networks are defined by rela-
tionships between entities, or nodes, and the structure of these relationships
(Scott et al. , 2008: 1). From a tourism perspective, network analysis has tra-
ditionally focused on the various service providers and administrators within
the tourism system and their inter-organizational relationships. The collab-
orative affiliations, partnerships and interdependence within the broader
tourism system are what constitute the notion of networks (Baggio &
Cooper, 2010; Baggio et al. , 2010; Timothy, 1998b). Underscoring networks
are collaborative principles such as trust, cooperation, working for the greater
good, social capital development and social support. While network concepts
in tourism studies do not necessarily refer to the spatial notion of nodes and
linear linkages as already noted, they certainly can.
Networks are especially crucial in understanding scale but also in
interpreting the development and operation of purposive cultural routes (see
Chapter 2), as well as other types of trails. The development of a trail (linear
resource) from a series of individual nodes (point attractions) requires the suc-
cessful implementation of networks and social capital building. The Ale Trail
in Canada, discussed later, is a good example of the importance of building
network capital and common trust, and how these efforts sometimes fail.
Marketing and governance networks are especially important in the develop-
ment of multi-nodal destination products (Beaumont & Dredge, 2010; Dredge &
Pforr, 2008; Pavlovich, 2003), including purposive trails, owing to the com-
plexities of consensus and trust building, forming interdependence, policy
development and maintaining the public image of these tourist routes.