Although there has been an increasing interest in rural tourism in terms of research, training and teaching, its conceptualization and the relationships between concept and strategy are still poorly represented and not well understood. The need for such a critical understanding is particularly crucial now as rural areas experience rapid change and as tourism is viewed as a potentially key element of development and regeneration. This book provides an interdisciplinary perspective and overview of the latest conceptual thinking on, and the evolving strategic roles of rural tourism, bringing together a wide range of case studies from the UK, Norway, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Poland and New Zealand by way of illustration. In doing so, it provides readily accessible material drawn from a range of environmental and cultural contexts and draws attention to the nature and interrelationships between local and global issues in rural tourism and development.
