Rural tourism : insights from the North Atlantic

Abstract

One main and accelerating demographic movement the world over is from low-density rural communities to high-density urban and suburban concentrations, from outlying archipelagos to central island towns and cities, from smaller islands to larger islands, and from islands to mainlands. Policy-makers laud the benefits of clusters and mega-cities and question the wisdom and sustainability of scattered communities (Courchene, 2005; Porter, 1990). Peripheral locations – particularly remote rural and island communities – are among the hardest hit by these contemporary mobilities, risking outright depopulation. Their communities lobby frantically for some sustained attention by distant policy-makers, and for investment in employment, educational services, health care, or transportation infrastructure to stem the tide of outward migration. Meanwhile, residents tend to vote with their feet: to the “unemployed, underpaid, or under-appreciated”, going away just makes “a lot of sense” (The Economist, 2005). Meanwhile, and in stark contrast to this scenario, other similarly peripheral locations find themselves attractive to visitors, secondary residents, and mainland retirees, resulting in large spikes in their seasonal (typically summer) populations, strained infrastructure, property price increases, and increasingly gentrified communities (Boissevain & Selwyn, 2004; Clark, Johnson, Lundholm, & Malmberg, 2007; Mu¨ller, 2007). This sounds like a catch-22 case of “damned if you do, and damned if you don’t”.