Doris A. Carson

Understanding local innovation systems in peripheral tourism destinations

Tourism destinations in peripheral areas are often large regions established by centralised government agencies to encourage collaboration between dispersed communities and foster innovation. Relatively little research attention has been paid to the impact that centrally defined destination boundaries have on whether and how small communities contribute to innovation at a regional level. This paper examines the case of Burra, a small town in rural South Australia. It analyses the networking, collaboration and knowledge exchange behaviour of tourism stakeholders in the context of the state-government-defined ‘Clare Valley’ tourism region. Data were drawn from a web-based social network analysis, in-depth interviews, historic document analysis and field observations. The study found that the local tourism system had limited aspirations and capabilities to collaborate with other towns in the region. Lack of regional engagement was only partially due to intra-regional competition and resistance to regional boundaries. More significant barriers included a local culture of operating in isolation, an embedded reliance on public sector leadership to manage systemic interactions, an aging system with limited ambition to change and an inability to harness in-migrants and externally based stakeholders to stimulate knowledge transfer. Changing the imposed destination boundaries would have limited impact on the operation of the local system. The paper concludes that effective regional destination development in peripheral areas needs to be better informed by more detailed understandings of local tourism systems and their capacities to engage.

Tourism and Mobilities in Sparsely Populated Areas: Towards a Framework and Research Agenda

Tourism and mobilities in sparsely populated areas : towards a framework and research agenda

Applying Landscape Science to Natural Resource Management

This is the introduction to the Ecology and Society special feature on “Applying Landscape Science to Natural Resource Management”. Primarily drawing upon examples from Australia, the nine papers in the feature illustrate how landscape science seeks to integrate information from diverse sources to generate management solutions for implementation by individual land managers, communities, and governments at different levels. This introduction refers to the genesis of the feature, briefly outlines the nature and content of landscape science, and then summarizes key features of the nine papers. These are organized into two sections: one deals with inputs from human agents in the landscape, and one with the development of models enabling different management scenarios and environmental changes to be envisaged, understood, and applied to policy development.

The role of heritage tourism in attracting “active” in-migrants to “low amenity” rural areas

Tourism can influence in-migration to rural areas by enhancing the attractiveness of rural communities and providing opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship and volunteer engagement appealing to in-migrants. Much research on the rural tourism-migration nexus has focused on “high amenity” areas characterized by scenic environments and well-developed tourism and service infrastructures. Many communities in inland Australia, however, are in “low amenity” areas where tourism opportunities are limited to exploiting industrial and cultural heritage assets. This article examines the role of heritage tourism in facilitating in-migration to such areas based on interviews with in-migrants to three communities in South Australia’s Mid-North, focusing on the experiences of “active” in-migrants who get economically or socially involved in their new communities. Findings suggest heritage tourism minimally affected migration decisions. Key attractors were housing, employment, cost of living and easy access to the city. Business opportunities in tourism were attractors where the tourism industry was relatively well developed. Overall, the factors influencing in-migration differed among communities suggesting locally, not regionally, focused place marketing strategies are required to target in-migrants.

Mobilities and Path Dependence: Challenges for Tourism and “Attractive” Industry Development in a Remote Company Town

Abstract This paper discusses the impacts of resource-based path dependence on alternative development scenarios in remote company towns, with a particular focus on understanding the prospects for new path creation in tourism and other “attractive” industries, such as retirement and lifestyle migration. The paper applies a mobilities perspective to the idea of path dependence in remote resource frontiers to analyse how the flows of people, skills and capital can become locked in by a range of factors, such as investments in infrastructure and transport technologies, established network connections for labour and knowledge provision, traditional economic development policies, and entrenched mobility cultures. The research examines the case of Nhulunbuy, a remote mining town in northern Australia, which currently faces severe socio-economic decline due to the closure of its alumina refinery. Using a range of secondary data sources, including population statistics and public documents, the case study traces Nhulunbuys development path since the 1970s and identifies a number of exogenous and endogenous causes for the potential lock-in of its mobilities trajectory. The implications for alternative pathways in tourism and other “attractive” industries are discussed, focusing on identifying the institutional and infrastructural changes required to unlock mobility flows.

Handbook on the globalisation of agriculture.

This Handbook provides insights to the ways in which globalisation is affecting the whole agri-food system from farms to the consumer. It covers themes including the physical basis of agriculture, ...

International winter tourism entrepreneurs in northern Sweden: understanding migration, lifestyle, and business motivations

ABSTRACT This paper examines the migration, lifestyle, and business motivations of international winter tourism entrepreneurs who have moved to a “low-amenity” rural area in northern Sweden. Low-amenity areas are characterised by economic decline, outmigration, and limited tourism development. Based on qualitative interviews, the research applied a multi-dimensional framework to the study of migrant tourism entrepreneurship, considering personal migration drivers, the value of location-specific amenities, desired consumptive experiences, previous familiarity with the destination, business-related goals, as well as temporal and technological dimensions of mobility and self-employment. The findings suggest that the northern winter and the undeveloped low-amenity character of the place were key factors in migration choices. Consumptive lifestyle interests around counter-urban living and winter outdoor hobbies were prominent, yet there was diversity in terms of business aspirations and considerable seasonal lifestyle–business balancing. Despite noticeable contributions to winter tourism development in the low-amenity north, the study also identified a sense of temporariness and expected onward migration among migrants, raising questions about the longevity of this development.

Tourism destination choice sets for families with wheelchair-bound children

ABSTRACT Families with disabled children encounter a range of mobility constraints when travelling for tourism purposes, yet how such constraints affect their ultimate destination choices is currently not well understood. This paper applies a destination choice set model to explain how families with wheelchair-bound children with cerebral palsy choose their holiday destinations. Interviews with 13 parents revealed that these families find many destinations unavailable due to various mobility and travel constraints, such as inaccessible modes of transport and accommodations. The destination choices are trade-offs between constraints and desires of the disabled child and other family members. The findings suggest that the destination choice set model for this particular target group should also consider an ‘accessible set’ of destinations with universal design when exploring travel-related decisions of these families. Finally, the paper argues for a more differentiated approach towards identifying and responding to travel constraints of families with disabled children.

The local demography of resource economies: long term implications of natural resource industries for demographic development in sparsely populated areas

Settlements at the Edge examines the evolution, characteristics, functions and shifting economic basis of settlements in sparsely populated areas of developed nations. With a focus on demographic change, the book features theoretical and applied cases which explore the interface between demography, economy, well-being and the environment. This book offers a comprehensive and insightful knowledge base for understanding the role of population in shaping the development and histories of northern sparsely populated areas of developed nations including Alaska (USA), Australia, Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Finland and other nations with territories within the Arctic Circle.

New mobilities – new economies? Temporary populations and local innovation capacity in sparsely populated areas

Temporary population mobilities – including short-term labour, residential and recreational mobilities – have long been a prominent feature of human geography in sparsely populated areas. Such mobi ...