Elsevier

Annals of Tourism Research

Volume 68, January 2018, Pages 41-51
Annals of Tourism Research

Tourism transition in peripheral rural areas: Theories, issues and strategies

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2017.11.003Get rights and content

Highlights

  • The concepts of ‘tourism transition’ and ‘peripherality’ are related to each other.

  • New tourism trends are set to become important drivers of change in peripheral rural areas.

  • Tourist offer dynamics and demographic ones are in countertrend in peripheral areas.

  • Community-based tourism and transition management may implement the collaboration between stakeholders.

  • Participatory projects have to focus on the implementation of ‘intermediate processes’.

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between “rural peripherality” and “tourism transition” to describe the ongoing transformations within the tourist supply in rural areas, highlighting the importance these concepts are acquiring in both the theoretical debate and the formation of policies. Based on the classification of peripheral areas provided by the Italian Strategy for Inner Areas, the authors have undertaken a detailed statistical analysis at the municipality level, considering tourism as an important driver of socio-economical change. A model of governance based on “transition management” is put forward as a practical tool to guide these processes. A case study conducted through participatory action-research offered the opportunity to overcome existing governance practices and experiment with more adaptive methods to manage the transition.

Introduction

The direct observation of some critical concerns at the municipality level in Italian peripheral rural areas led the authors to reflect upon both the theoretical paradigms and the possible strategies for supporting and overcoming some of the problems that confront local tourist development processes nowadays, such as: innovation and change, territorial governance, stakeholder collaboration, networking, and policy-making. The central question of the research design (Creswell, 2009) is then to explore whether the tourist offer in peripheral rural areas addresses a specific need that differentiates it from mainstream tourism and therefore requires alternative management policies.

On a broad theoretical level, the paper develops a critical analysis of the role contemporary tourism can play in peripheral rural contexts as a driver of change, particularly in terms of revitalisation and enhancement of countryside capital (Garrod, Wornell, & Youell, 2006). Special attention is paid to the particular conditions these processes require in order to be successfully realised. If, on the one hand, demand for non-popular-destinations in general (and for rural areas specifically) increasingly involves new tourist practices (Lane and Kastenholz, 2015, Urry, 1995), then, on the other. It is necessary to provide a renewed offer based on a wider and more efficient range of services (Hummelbrunner & Miglbauer, 1994) that are able to meet new tourists’ expectations (Fiorello & Bo, 2012).

One of the main themes the authors have analysed is the territorial polarisation that occurred in terms of tourist development during the last few decades.

Like other socio-economic phenomena, tourism organisation and marketing have been interpreted and managed according to a hierarchical “core-periphery” model (Britton, 1981, Chaperon and Bramwell, 2013, Lai and Li, 2012, Murphy and Andressen, 1988). Tourist flows, facilities and services have been concentrated in a few ganglion centres that have operated like attractive poles (Corigliano, Viganò, & Mottironi, 2015). According to the dependency theory developed in the 1960s and 70s (Britton, 1981), for example, the relation between core and periphery—as well as between urban and rural areas—may involve the stronger resorts or metropolitan areas (the cores) exploiting the weaker, which have often emerged as “pleasure peripheries” (Brown and Hall, 2000, Turner and Ash, 1975). Trading patterns have often been imposed that benefit the central powers. When this happens, tourist revenue generated at the periphery is seen as a means of reinforcing the business based in more developed, stronger areas. In several peripheral areas, tourist models have often resulted in enclave tourist resorts becoming connected with external capital rather than integrated in local economies (for example in Northern Europe: see Kauppila, Saarinen, & Leinonen, 2009).

In other places where investment in tourism has been absent (as in some rural areas of the Italian Apennines), the disappearance of the principal economic locally based activity—mainly agriculture—due to changes in food production, eventually caused demographic decline and abandonment. The concomitant decrease and aging of the population have often culminated in a critical situation where innovation has been prevented by poor exchange between socio-economic actors. Thus, these areas have usually been characterised by a low level of autonomy in planning capability. With poor access to and from markets, they have been largely absent from travel itineraries, apart from a small trickle of independent tourists.

Aside from its geographical location, therefore, the meaning of the term “periphery” itself has carried social, political and economic implications, often becoming a synonym for marginalisation, economic disadvantage, lack of technological infrastructure and political weakness.

In order to better understand the Italian context of the case study to be presented, some statistical data related to the tourist offer in peripheral areas have been analysed with reference to the framework proposed by the National Strategy of Inner Areas (NSIA), which has been experimenting since 2012. The classification of the municipalities used by the NSIA has been applied to analyse the dynamics of the tourist offer in the peripheries; specifically, how it has developed in different geographical locations, the extent to which it has diversified according to the various accommodation facilities, and how it has handled the prevailing negative demographic dynamics.

As Hummelbrunner and Miglbauer (1994) had already pointed out in the 90s, new cultural trends are re-orienting tourists’ choices. These trends include: (a) a growing environmental awareness; (b) individualisation and an openness to new experiences; (c) an emergent appeal for highly original and tailor-made travel experiences; and (d) a growing desire to participate in and to be integrated within a local life-style. New tourist practices have affirmed the presence of these trends within the contemporary market and rural tourism has transformed into a complex, multi-faceted business covering a series of niche activities and thereby becoming an umbrella term (rather than a tightly defined phenomenon) with multiple market appeal (Lane & Kastenholz, 2015). These types of product not only include agritourism but also wellness tourism, activity tourism, mountain biking and hiking, cultural and heritage tourism, food and wine tourism, and environmentally friendly activities. Tourists appear particularly attracted to differentiation and the search for distinctiveness (Baudrillard, 1974, Bourdieu, 1979) embodied by the countryside context and the pursuit of in-depth experiential value (Pine & Gilmore, 1999), to authenticity (Lindholm, 2008, Salvatore, 2006), to slowness (Dickinson and Lumsdon, 2010, Salvatore, 2013), and to responsibility (Goodwin & Francis, 2003).

A new complexity is therefore appearing that offers peripheral rural areas the chance to reconsider their position in positive terms. The very same attributes that were previously considered to be disadvantageous are now being valued as new opportunities (Brown & Hall, 2000). Isolation and remoteness have come to represent peace and distinctiveness, rurality is considered to be a way of getting in touch with nature, and traditional lifestyles are the basis of a heritage experience.

As a result of all these changes, the relation between rural peripheral areas and tourism points towards a twofold perspective: firstly, the important change rurality itself has been undergoing (Garrod et al., 2006, Hoggart and Paniagua, 2001); and secondly, the downgrading of “mass tourism” and the related emergence of the new tourist practices (Fiorello & Bo, 2012), which are particularly sensitive to a “sense of place” (Jepson & Sharpley, 2015).

These transformations are closely related to each other and are captured by the authors with the theoretical concept of “tourism transition”. It is taken for granted that each transition comprises processes of co-evolution involving changes in stakeholders’ needs and wants, in institutions, as well as in culture and practices (Kemp, Loorbach, & Rotmans, 2007). By “tourism transition” in this paper it is meant: (a) firstly, a cultural transformation of the rural peripheries from places of dependency and/or abandonment to ones of symbolic consumption (Jepson & Sharpley, 2015); (b) secondly, a paradigm shift related to a divergent conceptualisation of remoteness based on environmental, cultural and societal quality of life, rather than on marginality; (c) thirdly, a meaningful reorganisation of the tourist supply shifted towards common tourist products (Fiorello & Bo, 2012) that are the outcome of a new planning model focusing on “community-based” tourism (Jones, 2005).

All these conditions allow us to go beyond the stereotypical idea of the periphery as a “marginal area” and to re-consider its intrinsic attractive force in terms of tourist interest. Facing the challenge of becoming increasingly attractive tourist destinations, peripheries may now try to assert their agency (Chaperon & Bramwell, 2013). This means seizing the development opportunities presented by tourist flows more independently, favouring the re-activation of local resources in innovative ways, and potentially even triggering an escape from the crisis of traditional economics. An approach centred on agency offers the ability to overcome the determinism suggested by the concept of dependency because it acknowledges that local actors possess the ability to free themselves from their structural constraints and to influence their own circumstances. As reflexive subjects, they are capable of developing their own views and selecting their own actions in order to take strategic advantage of the opportunities they encounter.

This makes necessary new approaches to tourist planning and management that aim to reorganise tourist supply within the overall territorial system, by paying particular attention to the activation of local components such as landscape (Chiodo et al., 2009, Carneiro et al., 2015) and territorial identity (Kneafsey, 2000). The consequence of these changes is that tourism products are no long related to the offer of a single resort or accommodation facility. They emerge instead from the destination as a whole, resulting from a combination of services and different assets. Each tourist product is then a “ territorial product”, which envisages the development of tourism as neither a series of individual, free standing enterprises or as businesses that are part of national brands, but as a new form of territorial destination related to partnership concepts. This means the role of “network of relations” takes on a central importance, not only between the public and the private sectors, but also among all the economic actors, including citizens, as well as between local residents and travellers (Corigliano et al., 2015).

New tourist phenomena in peripheral rural areas, therefore, are set to become important drivers of change because they may favour a “proactive conservation of landscape” (Salvatore, 2015) as a replacement for abandonment due to the co-evolution among conservation, landscape making, active citizenship, and the tourist economy. Aside from these opportunities, though, there are several threats to be focused on. The increasing pace of change means it is not always easy for operators to address the challenges they are presented with. If local rural communities want to address this transition effectively, they ought to apply specific ways of thinking and doing based on a precise model of governance oriented towards sustainable development. “Transition management” (Kemp et al., 2007) appears to be particularly appropriate. It is a multi-level form of governance that steers processes of co-evolution using visions and work groups as the basis of learning and adaptation cycles. It may help rural communities to transform themselves in a gradual reflexive way through guided processes based on the interaction between all involved actors (institutions, citizens, cultural and tourist operators, farmers etc.). Such processes can be set in motion by utilising innovative bottom-up strategies in a more strategic way to coordinate different levels of governance while fostering self-organisation and self-sustainability. A “transition arena” may be created when a long-accepted situation loses its appeal and invites stakeholders to look outside the regular political short-term cycle for more innovative solutions that might emerge as the result of new coalitions and consensus building.

Section snippets

Peripheries in the Italian strategy for inner areas

In Italy, the above cited NSIA has recently tackled the issue of peripheral areas with an original and comprehensive approach based on a strategy currently being implemented at a national level and supported by an ambitious set of policies. The NSIA is promoted by the Department for the Economic Development and Cohesion—part of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Italian Government—within the framework of the EU cohesion policies 2014–2020. It is also supported by national funds.

Thanks

Transition management as a means for tourist supply reorganisation and territorial revitalisation

As a result of the reflections that both our theoretical and statistical data may stimulate, it can be useful to focus on the issues related to the reorganisation and management of the new tourist supply by considering transition management as the most appropriate approach to manage the change. In this essay, it is argued that the extent to which peripheral rural areas are effective in shifting tourist flows and in revitalizing territories is strongly dependent on the strategies local

Conclusions

The tourism transition—characterised by the shift from traditional economy and/or from mass tourism to new forms of locally based tourism—represents an important opportunity for peripheral areas as well as a difficult challenge to be addressed.

The re-conceptualisation of remoteness on one side and of rural peripheries on the other requires new approaches aimed at a reorganisation of the tourist supply more responsive to the emotional dimension of new tourist practices and the related “sense of

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Flora Viola as mayor of the municipality of Civitella Alfedena (Italy), for funding the project ‘Agenda Civitella Alfedena’. This project offered the Authors the possibility to take on the case study presented in this article. We would also like to show our gratitude to the tourist operators of the village who took part in the action-research and cooperate for planning a new tourist supply.

Rita Salvatore (Ph.D.) is a sociologist of environment and territory and she has been conducting research activities at the University of Teramo as a post-doc fellow for more than ten years. In particular, she has been studying the role of tourism within Italian protected areas and rural contexts. Along these years she has developed a particular interest in the analysis and social planning of sustainable tourism paths, with special concern to participative processes and communitarian

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    Rita Salvatore (Ph.D.) is a sociologist of environment and territory and she has been conducting research activities at the University of Teramo as a post-doc fellow for more than ten years. In particular, she has been studying the role of tourism within Italian protected areas and rural contexts. Along these years she has developed a particular interest in the analysis and social planning of sustainable tourism paths, with special concern to participative processes and communitarian development. She has been visiting researcher and lecturer at the ITW (Institut für Tourismuswirtschaft) of the University of Applied arts and Sciences of Luzern. Among her main international publications: «Between Nature and Landscape. The Role of Communities towards an Active Conservation in Protected Areas», in Gambino R., Peano A., (eds), Nature Policies and Landscape Policies: Towards an Alliance (Milano: Springer, 2014); «Sustainable tourism and local social development: a sociological reassessment of the link», in Sociologica, 2 (2012). She teaches “Food&Wine Tourism and Rural Development” at the Faculty of Bioscience and Technologies for Food, Agriculture and Environment, University of Teramo (Italy). She is the founder and editor of the blog abruzzolento.com which in 2013 received the special jury award within the Italian Prize Hombres.

    Emilio Chiodo is researcher in agricultural economics at the Faculty of Bioscience and Technology for Food Agriculture and Environment of the University of Teramo, research unit in Agro-food Economics and Marketing. He is lecturer in Economics, Management and Marketing of wine sector and vice-coordinator of the Master in “Local Development Management in Natural Parks”. He has developed a particular interest in rural development, enhancement of local agro-food products, socio-economic planning in rural and protected areas. He has coordinated several research projects on the following topics: socio-economic anlaysis and planning in protected areas and Nature 2000 sites; sustainable tourism; consumers’ preferences and producer-consumer relationships analysis concerning different specialty agro-food products chains (extra-virgin olive oil, cheese, wine, chestnuts, medicinal plants). He has collaborated at the definition of the Rural Development Program of the Abruzzo Region 2014-2020.

    Andrea Fantini is professor in agricultural economics and marketing at the Faculty of Bioscience and Technology for Food Agriculture and Environment of the University of Teramo, and coordinator of the Research unit in Agro-food Economics and Marketing. His main research fields concern: agro-food economics; market research; family farm marketing; short food supply chain; ecotourism. He has coordinated several research and teaching projects aimed at the enhancement of quality of agri-food products, in collaboration with Italian and Brazilian authorities, Universities and NGOs. At the moment, he is coordinator of the project “Good, clean and fair food: increasing and upgrading the participation of Brazilian family agriculture in the Slow Food movement”.

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