Rural destination development contributions by outdoor tourism actors

A Bornholm case study

Bibliographic Data

ID5761634
AuthorsRikke B Broegaard (0000-0002-3758-5984, Centre for Regional and Tourism Research, Nexoe, Denmark, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume24
Issue4-5
Pages794-814
Publication date2022-07-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTourism Geographies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-6688 • E-ISSN: 1470-1340
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14616688.2020.1795708
OpenAlexW3047347947
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited54

Outdoor tourism is on the growth agenda of public strategies and public-private development partnerships in many peripheral areas of the world, raising high expectations for job creation and rural development. Based on participant observation in an outdoor tourism cluster project and qualitative interviews with other tourism and regional development actors on the Baltic island of Bornholm, Denmark, this research asks how the micro-entrepreneurs and volunteer event organizers contribute to rural destination development, and how their contributions can best be supported by regional development actors. Drawing on the concepts of placial engagement and translocal connections, the research shows that micro-entrepreneurs' and volunteer event organizers' mobility and multi-local place engagement, combined with their orientation towards goals other than profit maximation, represent a strong rural place-development potential – a potential that tends to be undervalued by established tourism and regional development actors. The small-scale outdoor tourism actors show strong collaborative and networking behaviour regarding business, product, and place development. In addition to (modest) tourism-generated income and (often part-time) employment, they contribute by providing new residents, business diversity and flexibility, translocal resources and knowledge, as well as actively engage in place-making and branding. These diverse qualities can be argued to strengthen innovation, attractiveness and community resilience in economically challenged rural areas. The relevance of using a translocal perspective on tourism entrepreneurship and rural destination development is exemplified by the article in its presentation of the wider development contributions of the micro outdoor tourism actors which are important to acknowledge for regional development actors to build on them strategically

Attractiveness · Business · Economic geography · Economic growth · Entrepreneurship · Geography · Political science · Public relations · Rural area · Rural tourism · Sense of place · Tourism · Tourism geography · Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research · Rural development and sustainability · Tourism, Volunteerism, and Development · Marketing

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