Working Group 1.6


Home Congress themes Important dates Programme Excursions Pre and post events Registration General information Contacts and committees	Working Group 1.6 Tourism in a Rural Setting: Opportunities and Challenges Convenors: Dr Alenka Verbole alenka.verbole@gmail.com Dr Marit S. Haugen marit.haugen@rural.no Dr Martin Rønningen martin.ronningen@hil.no Tourism has been a factor shaping the European countryside for at least two centuries. Since the beginning of the 1990s rural tourism has experienced a renaissance and has come to play an even more central role in the formation of rural areas. Through various transformations, the countryside is evolving into a place for leisure and tourism, based on its natural and man-made amenities and cultural heritage. Distinctive features of local communities, landscapes, culture and people are targeted as assets within the increasing tourism business. Rural tourism, promoted and supported by government policy, is part of the shift in the economic base of many rural societies. It might promote employment, vitality and sustainability of rural communities, but might also represent conflicting interests and challenges. Rural tourism, as part of increasing mobility, has a potential to transform not only the economic but also the social and cultural fabric of rural areas. This working group seeks to address the challenges, opportunities and consequences that arise. Papers are invited exploring from a conceptual or empirical perspective different dimensions of rural tourism within the context of rural development, covering topics such as: the rural idyll and rural tourism development rural tourism as a mean to re-invent the rural organisation, innovation and entrepreneurship within rural tourism development patterns and impacts of tourism in rural areas analysis of policy and regulations promoting or hindering rural tourism development tourist and hosts, their roles, motivations and experiences socio-cultural, environmental and economic impacts of rural tourism	Host Country Finland Host City Vaasa in a nutshell Location on the map Weather in Vaasa Pictures from Vaasa Host Universities University of Vaasa Åbo Akademi, Vasa

Working Group 1.6

Tourism in a Rural Setting: Opportunities and Challenges

Convenors:
Dr Alenka Verbole alenka.verbole@gmail.com
Dr Marit S. Haugen marit.haugen@rural.no
Dr Martin Rønningen martin.ronningen@hil.no

Tourism has been a factor shaping the European countryside for at least two centuries. Since the beginning of the 1990s rural tourism has experienced a renaissance and has come to play an even more central role in the formation of rural areas. Through various transformations, the countryside is evolving into a place for leisure and tourism, based on its natural and man-made amenities and cultural heritage.

Distinctive features of local communities, landscapes, culture and people are targeted as assets within the increasing tourism business. Rural tourism, promoted and supported by government policy, is part of the shift in the economic base of many rural societies. It might promote employment, vitality and sustainability of rural communities, but might also represent conflicting interests and challenges. Rural tourism, as part of increasing mobility, has a potential to transform not only the economic but also the social and cultural fabric of rural areas. This working group seeks to address the challenges, opportunities and consequences that arise.

Papers are invited exploring from a conceptual or empirical perspective different dimensions of rural tourism within the context of rural development, covering topics such as:

the rural idyll and rural tourism development
rural tourism as a mean to re-invent the rural
organisation, innovation and entrepreneurship within rural tourism
development patterns and impacts of tourism in rural areas
analysis of policy and regulations promoting or hindering rural tourism development
tourist and hosts, their roles, motivations and experiences
socio-cultural, environmental and economic impacts of rural tourism

Host Country
Finland

Host City
Vaasa in a nutshell
Location on the map
Weather in Vaasa
Pictures from Vaasa

Host Universities
University of Vaasa
Åbo Akademi, Vasa