This chapter focuses on the impacts and benefits of creating or developing tourism routes and trails. It considers the contribution of tourism to economic growth; the measurement of economic return; the economic impact of routes and trails especially in rural, mountain or remote areas; the social...

This book presents an overview of tourism routes and trails and attempts to make sense of this complex universe: why they exist, how they were created and what role they play in the development and management of tourism. Chapters 1 to 5 discuss and analyse the nature of routes and trails. These...

This chapter introduces the fundamental nature of tourism routes. Sections discuss: the taking and following of routes and trails; routes as ways of describing and defining the movement of travellers; routes and trails as ways of structuring tourism; routes, trails and adventure; and the identity...

This chapter explores the relationship between tourism and culture, and how routes acquire and express human and cultural values. Sections discuss: the magical dimension of tourism routes; the cultural value of routes; the work of the Council of Europe, the UNWTO and UNESCO in promoting the...

This chapter starts with an overview of early tourism, where the journey and route were of critical importance. It then discusses: the three essential tools and facilitators of route-focused tourism (tour operators, guides and guidebooks); the emergence of destination-focused tourism since the...

This chapter looks at the trends in tourism that affect the development of routes, branded trails and circuits as means of structuring the traveller's experiences. The desire for richer experiences and adventure among today's travellers, the return to local and authentic, the slow tourism movement, ...

This chapter is about tourism routes as stories. Sections discuss: finding meaning in routes and trails; how routes tell stories; the principal genres of the stories behind routes; and the rules for how a route or trail should tell its story. A case study is presented of Lake Abbé and the...

This chapter provides an overview of how tourism routes can be categorized according to principal motivations for travel. Four of the categories are examined: cultural tours and circuits; themed and branded driving routes; cycling routes; and long-distance walking trails. A case study is presented...

This chapter looks at tourism route development from the viewpoint of the public sector - the agents of national, regional and local government. It explains how routes are seen as a way of distributing value across a destination, and uses examples from Peru and New Mexico to illustrate how...

This chapter looks at why and how the adventure travel trade (consisting of private tour operators) engages in trail-based product development. Sections examine: the profile of adventure tour operators; the adventure travel approach to route development; partnerships; community engagement; and the...