ABSTRACT
Tourism is often identified as an important tool for sustaining rural communities, not least in peripheral areas (Butler et al. 1998; Müller and Jansson 2007). This is partly a government response to rural restructuring and a decline in traditional rural industries. However, increasing global competition in relation to people, capital and investments is forcing rural communities to find new ways to re-image their place and remain competitive (Hall 2005). For people in these communities, tourism appears to be one of the few options for making a living in an increasingly de-industrialized rural arena (Müller 2011).
