ABSTRACT
As several authoritative texts (e.g. Butler et al. 1998; Hall, D. 2005; Roberts 2004; Roberts and Hall 2001) have recently confirmed, rural areas have become increasingly significant in the (re)production of tourism over recent years. It is equally clear, however, that tourism has become increasingly significant in the (re)production of rurality, particularly in view of a clearly changing set of relationships between space and society in relation to the countryside. Mormont’s (1990) classic study identified five trends in contemporary rural society and space:
• an increase in the mobility of people, resulting in an erosion of the autonomy of local communities;
• a delocalization of economic activity and the associated heterogeneity of economic zones;
• new specialized uses of rural spaces (especially related to tourism) creating new specialized networks of relations in the areas concerned, many of which are no longer localized;
• the people inhabiting rural space increasingly include a diversity of temporary visitors as well as residents;
• rural spaces now tend to perform functions for non-rural users and can exist independently of the actions of rural people.
