Rural Tourism and Sustainable Business

This is a structured, edited book of nineteen chapters which provides, from an inter-disciplinary perspective, latest thinking on, and practical case study exemplification of rural tourism and sustainable business development from Europe, North America, Australasia, the Middle East and Japan.

Derek Hall is a Partner in Seabank Associates, and latterly Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the University of Plymouth, UK. He has extensive experience in the field of tourism and political geography. His recent publications include Tourism and Geopolitics: Issues and Concepts from Central and Eastern Europe (CABI, 2017).

The editors have all worked together in the former Leisure and Tourism Management Department of the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) which produced the ‘Auchincruive Declaration’ on tourism and rural sustainability in 1998, and which this book helps to perpetuate. They have common interests in sustainable rural development, notably Morag Mitchell in economic evaluation, Irene Kirkpatrick in equine recreation development, and Derek Hall in retirement recreation in the countryside. Dr Mitchell is now Rural Economist with SAC Aberdeen, Ms Kirkpatrick had administrative roles with SAC Auchincruive, and Professor Hall is Visiting Professor with Häme Polytechnic, Finland and a partner of Seabank Enterprises, Scotland.

This is a book to savour and one that should make readers think. Well chosen contributors from around the world present a rich mix of theory and practice.

This book provides constructive knowledge on the development and diversity of rural tourism. It will contribute to a much-needed reinvigoration of the rural tourism debate.