Aspects Of Tourism Nature Based Tourism In Peripheral Areas

Nature-based Tourism in Peripheral Areas provides a comprehensive examination of this form of tourism development as it occurs within alpine, forest, sub-polar, island, coastal and marine environments. This book goes beyond much of the debate surrounding ecotourism and the impacts of tourism in vulnerable environments to place nature-based tourism in a wider regional context, particularly when for many peripheral regions tourism remains one of the key opportunities for economic development. Therefore, a central theme that is present throughout many of the chapters is the role that nature-based tourism can play as the catalyst for larger regional development of regions. The book will serve as essential reading to senior undergraduate and postgraduate students taking courses in tourism and related degrees where the major focus is on tourism that occurs within peripheral regions. It will also serve as a key reference to researchers and professionals interested in the role of tourism as a regional development tool.

There has been little research on tourism in those European countries or regions which lie outside the continent’s main centres of production and population, even though tourism may be one of the few economic options open to them. This volume aims to fill a gap by presenting a range of case studies – including northern Sweden, the Orkneys, the tip of Norway and northern Cyprus – on tourism in the peripheral areas of Europe. Taking as a leitmotiv the paradoxes inherent in developing places whose very attraction may lie in their lack of development, the case studies investigate and illustrate both the opportunities and the threats that tourism presents to peripheral areas. Although they share certain similarities, the cases also demonstrate differing approaches to tourism development and varying outcomes over time. They suggest solutions for dealing with, for example, community participation as well as providing practical insights into visitor perceptions of peripheral areas and into ways of marketing such areas in a sensitive manner. Together they provide a picture of the needs of peripheral areas and of how far and how best tourism can fulfil those needs.

Using case studies from North America, Scandinavia, Scotland, New Zealand and the Polar Regions, this book explores the use of tourism as a vehicle for regional development in peripheral areas. It identifies the core obstacles facing tourism in peripheral regions and highlights that tourism development in peripheries is not any easy task.

Nature has been a key attraction factor for tourism in the Nordic countries for decades. The demand for nature-based tourism has steadily grown and is one of the most rapidly expanding sectors within tourism across Europe and elsewhere. This demand has created opportunities for nature-based tourism to develop as an economic diversification tool within regions rich in natural amenities. But nature-based tourism is not only about tourism businesses and tourists visiting nature. The natural environment as a basis for tourism involves many challenges related to local communities, public access, nature protection and the management of natural resources. This book covers a broad set of topics in contemporary nature-based tourism from Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Areas discussed are innovation, fishing rights and supply of angling, recreation experience preferences, national park attractions, the cultural clash between established outdoor recreational use and new tourism activities, the Right of Public Access as opportunity and obstacle, preferences of tourism landscapes, controversies around wilderness development, management of hiking trails, eco-tourism certification, and financing of recreational infrastructure. This book was published as a special issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism.

'Ecotourism' outlines the phenomenon of Ecotourism; its sources and its development as a concept. Conservation issues are now at the forefront of public opinion - Nature is calling us to its wilds and we are responding in droves. The decline of natural rainforests, loss of endangered species, global warming and land degradation have galvanised public support for conservation. The interest in Ecotourism and nature-orientated tourism has coincided with this worldwide concern Using relevant case studies, 'Ecotourism' examines the potential positive social and environmental benefits of Ecotourism and is ideal for both students of tourism and practitioners within the tourism industry. 'Ecotourism' will also be of interest to environmental groups, land managers, academics and planners. Indeed anyone interested in examining what Ecotourism is and how it may hold the potential to solve or at least mitigate several of the great problems of our age. An example being arguably the greatest of these dilemmas: to satisfy human needs for employment, income and economic development, while at the same time protecting the environment. Stephen Wearing and John Neil are both lecturers at the School of Tourism Studies, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.

This title offers a synthesis of the burgeoning literature on ecotourism, with a necessarily selective approach to the key debates, issues and prospects for ecotourism.