ABSTRACT
Before describing the procedures and discussing the results of a research project carried out in the first half of 1986 on the planning of a specific kind of tourist route in the northern Netherlands, some remarks are in order about the wider context in which this study must be considered. Using tourism as a tool for regional economic development remains one of the prime objectives of studies of the Recreation Research Group in Groningen (Bergsma, 1983 & 1986a). It was also the main topic of the joint Groningen-Reading Recreation and Tourism Workshop of 1985 on ‘the impact of tourism in disadvantaged regions’ (Ashworth & Goodall, 1986). If tourism is to be used as a vehicle for regional and economic development purposes, we not only need knowledge about the intrinsic physical, socio-cultural and economic potentials for developing a regional tourism product, but we also need to know what possibilities there are for promoting, distributing and finally selling the product.
