TY - JOUR

T1 - Rural destination development contributions by outdoor tourism actors

T2 - A Bornholm case study

AU - Broegaard, Rikke Brandt

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - (Bornholm)

KW - ;

KW - ;;

KW - Bornholm

KW - collaboration

KW - Denmark

KW - destination development

KW - micro-entrepreneurs

KW - Outdoor tourism

KW - placial embeddedness

KW - resilience

KW - rural development

KW - translocalism

KW - 丹麦

KW - 协作

U2 - 10.1080/14616688.2020.1795708

DO - 10.1080/14616688.2020.1795708

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85088977946

JO - Tourism Geographies

JF - Tourism Geographies

SN - 1461-6688

ER -