Introduction
Many rural areas are facing different challenges. These challenges are interconnected and include problems such as depopulation, decline in agricultural employment and ageing. On the other hand, tourism is increasing in prominence as a tool for rural development. This opens up new opportunities for rural areas. However, transition from traditional rural economies to tourism brings challenges for the policy makers in deciding on how to plan and implement rural tourism policies. Typically such decisions require trade-offs between economic, environmental and social interests.
The aim of tourism development is rural areas is, in general terms, to provide opportunities for economic and social development. In some areas, tourism provides the main source of income and employment, as well as providing social and environmental benefits. Inevitably, negative aspects of rural tourism development are evident also. There is a substantial literature on the impacts of tourism in rural areas. Much of the early tourism impact research focuses on rural areas, arguably because the relationship between tourism and the environment in the countryside is more pronounced. The benefits of rural tourism in general are:
· Increases the range and viability of local businesses (food and non-food shops, hotels, pubs and cafes, garages, indirect spending to other non-tourist businesses)
· Contributes to social and community life (encourages new businesses, provides employment, supports fund-raising and community events, makes a greater choice of recreational opportunities available to local people)
· Helps maintain or improve services (health services, entertainment, banks, public transport)
· Brings about environmental and/or infrastructural improvements (pride generated, revenue pays for environmental improvements, large car parks, interpretation, enhanced visual amenity) (Page & Connel, 2006)
Several negative impacts were reported. Rising house process, traffic congestion, parking problems, disturbance and litter were the most common aspects reported (Page & Connel, 2006).
Research Questions
This research aims to investigate on the roles played by tourism in rural development. The following questions will be answered through this research:
1. What are the trends in rural tourism?
2. What are the opportunities for rural development offered by tourism?
3. How are rural resources being managed to support tourism and development?
4. How can sustainable development be achieved in rural areas with active tourism industries?
Research Methodology
This research will make use of both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. According to Newman and Benz (1998), a qualitative research involves an interpretative, naturalistic approach of the subject matter. Qualitative research is about studying things in their natural settings. A researcher conducting qualitative research attempts to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meaning people bring to them. Qualitative research involves different methods of gathering and collecting of empirical materials such as case study personal experience, introspective, life story, interview, observational, historical, interactions, and visual texts. This method of data collection is about exploring issues, understanding phenomena and answering questions. The quantitative paradigm is based on positivism which takes scientific explanation to be nomethetic (i.e. based on universal laws). Its main aims are to measure the social world, to test hypotheses and to predict and control human behavior (Newman and Benz 1998). Quantitative research is based on the assumption that the world can be investigated using scientific method and that there is an independent reality. Quantitative research is based on the belief that measurable influences (independent variables) affect measurable outcomes (dependent variables) in a cause-effect manner. Quantitative studies are studies in which the data can be analyzed using conventional statistical methods (Peat 2001). As its name implies, quantitative research is concerned with quantities – how to measure phenomena and how to express those measurement. A researcher who takes a quantitative approach to investigating a topic aims to learn more about it. Taking a quantitative approach to research implies asking questions about the phenomena that can be counted. Researchers who take a quantitative approach often work within positivism, as this paradigm frames the world as a collection of apparently independent phenomena to be counted, measured and otherwise catalogued as the prelude to deducing the rules or laws underlying them and giving them coherence (MacNaughton et al 2001). This is a method of data collection, that usually emphasizes on words rather than numeric in the collection of data and analysis whereby questionnaires, surveys and experiments are carried out (Bryman and Bell, 2003).
References
Page, S & Connell, J 2006, Tourism: A modern synthesis, Cengage Learning EMEA.
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