ABSTRACT
The number of Southerners below the poverty level has increased by 2.5 million during the 1980s, and unemployment in many rural counties is triple that in the metro areas. The Ozarks of northern Arkansas and the scenic mountains of the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia are attracting both retirees and tourists in unprecedented numbers. The almost unlimited outdoor recreational opportunities afforded in the rural South are being regarded as commercially viable resources that can contribute substantially to a community's economic base. Without some bold new approaches, the ultimate effect of all this will, of course, be an accelerated migration from the rural areas to the cities. North Carolina has just formed the Rural Economic Development Corporation with funding from state as well as private sources. A major source of new economic development lies in the areas of tourism, recreation and retirement services.
