David W. Marcouiller

The Role of Amenities and Quality of Life In Rural Economic Growth

A structural model of regional economic growth is estimated using data for 2243 rural U.S. counties. Five indices designed to capture specific amenity and quality of life characteristics are constructed using fifty-four separate indicators. Results suggest that amenity characteristics can be organized into consistent and meaningful empirical measures that move beyond ad hoc descriptions of amenities. In addition to insights into the influence of local characteristics ranging from tax burdens to income distribution on regional economic growth, results suggest that predictable relationships between amenities, quality of life, and local economic performance exist. Copyright 2001, Oxford University Press.

Toward Integrative Tourism Planning in Rural America

There is a need to develop planningframeworks that address tourism development within the broader context of community or regional development goals in rural areas of the United States. An integrative approach is one such framework that entails careful assessment of economic, social, and environmental impacts of tourism relative to other development strategies. This review takes a historical perspective of rural tourism planning progress. Core concepts of an integrative approach are collaborative planning with the affected stakeholders and the assessment of specific planning issues that foster integration of tourism with overall regional development. The application of more integrativeframeworks allows planners to improve the manner in which rural tourism development occurs.

Rethinking Community Economic Development

In this article, the authors present arguments for a more interdisciplinary approach to community economic development. Building an alternative paradigm that includes six elements—resources, markets, institutions, society, decision making, and space—they rethink the framework that links economic theory to the practice of community economic development. Major attention is paid to the integration of economic and noneconomic factors in the practice of community economic development. In the end, the goal of this new paradigm is to more directly link the practice of community economic development to its solid interdisciplinary theoretical foundation.

Tourism Dependence in Rural America: Estimates and Effects

Recreation and tourism development continue to play an important role in reshaping rural America. Efforts to evaluate the effects of such development are complicated because residents and nonrecreation visitors also use the businesses that are affected by recreation and tourism visitors. We present a method for estimating in nonmetropolitan counties jobs and income that are generated by recreation and tourism visitors from outside the county. Several different techniques are used to (1) cluster similar counties, (2) account for the portion of tourism sector employment that serves local residents, and (3) account for the portion of export activity that serves nonrecreation visitors. Finally, we address the consequences of recreation dependence in rural counties. The counties most dependent on nonlocal tourism activity are compared to other rural counties on income, population, economic structure, and housing variables.Recreation and tourism development continue to play an important role in reshaping rural America. Efforts to evaluate the effects of such development are complicated because residents and nonrecreation visitors also use the businesses that are affected by recreation and tourism visitors. We present a method for estimating in nonmetropolitan counties jobs and income that are generated by recreation and tourism visitors from outside the county. Several different techniques are used to (1) cluster similar counties, (2) account for the portion of tourism sector employment that serves local residents, and (3) account for the portion of export activity that serves nonrecreation visitors. Finally, we address the consequences of recreation dependence in rural counties. The counties most dependent on nonlocal tourism activity are compared to other rural counties on income, population, economic structure, and housing variables.

Natural Amenity-Led Development and Rural Planning

Rural America’s economy, culture, and landscape have entered a period of sustained and dramatic change. Patterns of land use and the context of development are increasingly driven by natural resource-based amenity values. Planners face a new breed of economic, social, and environmental issues brought about by this rapid change in land use; driven, in large part, by demands for rural residential developments and recreationally-oriented land uses. This annotated bibliography has been compiled as a primer to the academic literature that relates to this phenomenon.

Environmental resources as latent primary factors of production in tourism: the case of forest-based commercial recreation

The supply of tourism, in many respects, remains an unresolved area of theoretical and empirical development. The reasons for this are many, but the author argues in this paper that one of the limiting core areas of conceptual development in tourism economics is the general need for an analytical framework that captures generic production processes used to produce output from the tourism sector. One important unresolved issue of production includes use of critical resources such as environmental goods that serve as latent primary factor inputs to the production process of tourism. Often, these resources are hidden from analysis due to their non-priced common-pool attributes. This is particularly true in rural amenity-rich regions where nature-based tourism firms are becoming increasingly important to regional economies. Using forest resources as an example, the incorporation of non-priced tourism production inputs more completely specifies the tourism production function, provides a critical linkage to land and recreation resource management, and allows for more integrative tourism planning approaches.

Outdoor recreation planning: a comprehensive approach to understanding use interaction

Growing demands for outdoor recreation have led to increased levels of crowding, displacement, competition and antagonism among alternative recreational uses. Recreational activities interact with differing degrees of compatibility resulting in various outcomes. In this review, we critique the relevant literature on recreation conflict, use compatibility and additivity with a focus on the interaction that takes place among alternative recreational uses. Results suggest that the literature is replete with theoretical and empirical studies focused on recreational conflict, while more comprehensive interaction types remain less studied and, in general, lacking overarching conceptual and analytical approaches. Further, there exists a need to link comprehensive approaches that address recreational use interaction with empirical analyses and management-specific strategies that allow for proactive planned outcomes that are positive-sum. We forward an approach to recreation planning that focuses on managing for relative compatibilities that involves maximizing those uses thought to be complementary and supplementary, while segregating and/or regulating those uses that are competitive and antagonistic.

Recreational housing and local government finance.

Abstract One of the important aspects of community development planning for tourism involves the assessment of benefits and costs associated with touristic activities to local units of government. The primary objective of this study was to identify the impact of recreational housing development on the financial position of local governments within a rural setting. Using census data for Wisconsin counties, a “holistic” type model of fiscal impact is specified and estimated. Results suggest that recreational housing development just pays for itself in terms of the ability of local governments to generate revenues when compared to the demands placed on services, as measured by expenditures.

Moving Beyond the Modeling of Regional Economic Growth: A Study of How Income is Distributed to Rural Households

This article discusses the use of regional economic modeling techniques to determine the household income distribution impacts associated with various economic sectors. Determining the distributional characteristics of economic sectors requires identifying the relationship between aggregate factor income change and its distribution to local households. Social accounting matrix analysis provides an analytic framework to track the flow of income from local productive activities to households differentiated by income category. Its use is illustrated with an analysis of alternative economic development strategies for a rural region. To the extent that local economic develop ment policy can differentially influence the level of local productive activity, it becomes possible to assess who benefits by economic growth. Incorporating information related to income distribution allows local policy makers to move beyond the pursuit of aggregate economic growth to incorporate additional objectives that are important to overall regional development.

Rural Tourism Production and the Experience-Scape

Careful investigations of the supply-side components of tourism are critical to the creation of informed public policy that addresses amenity production, regional change, and integrative tourism planning. In this article we develop a conceptual basis of the rural tourism experience from a supply perspective that includes latent inputs, joint productivity, and the experience-scape within a capability framework. these tourism building blocks allow for alternative compatibility and sustainability outcomes resulting from rural tourism development. the analysis suggests implications for planning and policy analysis that span economic, social, and environmental issues central to rural regions and their communities.