In order to explore key issues, practices and approaches in marketing and management across the breadth of the rural tourism sector, this book considers issues around political intervention, public interest and local sustainability, and discusses key issues affecting rural enterprises in both...

This chapter provides an overview of rural business development in the developed world, offering UK, US and European perspectives on the development of rural tourism enterprises, including farm tourism and culinary tourism. The chapter illustrates the importance of public funding to the development ...

This chapter illustrates the importance of identifying the rural tourist profiles to boost business operations in this field and to support the rural tourism economy at large in developed countries. In this vein, profile characteristics, traits and other psychographic elements are presented...

This chapter introduces the concept of marketing and communications for rural businesses in developing countries. Various cases coming from a range of business activities are included to reveal the practical aspect of relevant theoretical frameworks. For example, this chapter delineates the...

This chapter explores sustainable (and unsustainable) and ethical (and unethical) practices in rural business and tourism in contexts in which sustainability and ethics are not formalized. The chapter considers the opportunities and challenges for encouraging and promoting ethically sustainable...

This chapter outlines the principles of collaboration to support innovation in rural business, by understanding the key elements of innovation and open innovation. The chapter also explores the current and ongoing challenges facing rural tourism businesses to innovate. It highlights cases set...

This chapter reviews the different barriers that rural tourism enterprises may encounter, whilst outlining the methods that can be used for their identification and assessment. Competitive-positioning, resource-based and innovation strategies for overcoming those barriers are also discussed and...

The study presented in this chapter was conducted to understand how social networks lead to access to information, thus helping farmers make decisions on adoption of agricultural innovations and entrepreneurial activities (commercial vegetable cultivation, value addition and small enterprises) in...

This chapter examines aspects of river heritage and how the tourism industry has provided the impetus for the adaptive preservation of a significant heritage site on the Murray River, part of the larger Murray-Darling River System, Australia. The chapter commences with a brief overview of the...

This chapter presents the results of feasibility studies conducted for three non-wood tree product enterprises based on indigenous fruits from the miombo ecosystem in Malawi, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. It is established that the key to growing viable indigenous fruit processing enterprises is the...