SAMPLE OF RESEARCH PROPOSAL: “Rural Tourism Development for the Prefecture of Lassithi in Crete.”
1.0INTRODUCTION TO PROBLEM STATEMENT AND PURPOSE OF STUDY Over the last two decades or so, the whole world has experienced rapid changes and socioeconomic transformations. The socioeconomic changes affected and caud vere stress mainly to isolated, peripheral and rural areas of the world. However, the changes in economic and social culture structure of the world caud decread farm revenues, changing in the farmland values and high rates of unemployment, leading to mass exodus of the productive forces and lack of balance in the demographics of rural areas (Gannon, 1993).
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It is obvious from the above that the need of rural areas for socioeconomic development and regeneration along with the need for diversification of their economic ba so as to meet the changes is today greater than ever. In that n, tuned to be a promising industry and one of the main ctors that national and local governments support and promote as a vehicle for revitalization of the rural areas.
The development of rural tourism was followed by the changes on tourist’s demands and behavior. Tou
27 dressrism in rural areas offers the potentials for alternative, individual and more authentic tourism experiences satisfying the needs of the experienced and highly demanded “new” tourists. In addition there is a demand for tourism and recreation activities in the countryside that is different than that of traditional resorts and mass tourism destinations (Page et al., 1997).
The motivation behind of this project is bad on the fact that during the last few decades the growth of Greek tourist industry has been dramatic. Traditional tourism development, concentrated in coastal and mountain resorts, urban and cultural centers, has proven that tourism can bring enormous benefits to the economy, society and environment of a certain area. However at the same time there is a realization that certain parts of the
country have been left behind in development. Given their resources in the form of build and natural environment they are increasingly ems as areas for rural tourism development.
The Greek government is currently promoting rural tourism in order to sustain local economies, and to enhance employment and growth. Although rural tourism is regarded as a new feature of the Greek supply of tourism opportunities, in recent years demands for holidays in small villages and the countryside has incread significantly in many rural regions of the world.
The local of this rearch is a peripheral area of Greece, called Prefecture of Lassithi. It is located in the Eastern part of the biggest island of Greece, the Cretan island. Even though that rural tourism is in its infancy in the region, prefecture of Lassithi provides a unique opportunity for the study of rural tourism for the purpos of this rearch.
The rearch project will therefore ek to explore and investigate the following:
•To examine the extent to which rural tourism contributes to the economy of the prefecture of Lassithi in Crete.
•To identify and evaluate the demand for rural tourism at the prefecture of Lasithi.
•To identify and evaluate if the supply meets the demand for rural tourism at the prefecture of Lassithi.
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
“Traditional, agriculture and forestry were central to rural life. They were the major employers of labor, the main sources of income within the rural economy and indirectly had a powerful influence on traditions, power structures and life styles” (Lane, 1994: 17)
2.1 WHAT IS “RURAL”
There is not one common definition of rural anywhere in the literature and the various definitions that exist differ not only in scale but also in philosophy. While many countries u specific criteria for rurality, there is no universal agreement on the critical threshold which distinguishes between urban and rural populations (Roberts et al., 2001).
2.2 DEFINITION OF RURAL TOURISM
世界100强大学排名Even though it ems simple to define rural tourism as “tourism that takes place in the countryside” this definition does not include the complexity of the activities and the different forms and meanings developed in different countries, as well as the number of protagonists participating in rural tourism (Lane, 1993).
According to (Lane, 1994) it is difficult to define rural tourism since there is not a systematic source of data in rural tourism and neither World Tourism Organization (WTO) nor the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have appropriate measures.
Nevertheless, Opperman (1996) suggested that the field of rural tourism still lacks a comprehensive body of knowledge and theoretical framework. He argued that this is caud by
2020年研究生国家分数线a)Definitional problems concerning what constitutes rural tourism
accusationb)Lack of data sources on small, rural enterpris which makes rural tourism much
less obvious and signifies much more tedious work for rearchers in their quest for data (Butler et al, 1998:224).
Although, the need to differentiate rural tourism from other forms of tourism exists. Even if there is ambiguity between urban and rural and it is certainly difficult to speak about strictly rural characteristics, people still shape images and views of the countryside that differ from tho of the town. The social reprentations of rural areas by the media and
the perceptions of individuals for the countryside certainly create a demand for the spaces and shape conquently the distinctive form of rural tourism (Bramwell, 1994).
Looking at the supply side, rural tourism can be understood in three different ways:
a)Rural tourism is perceived as “working class tourism”. It depicts the image of asoundgarden
poor man’s holiday, which stays with a local resident in a rural area.
b)Rural tourism is associated with a particular form of accommodation, as well as
with the option of undertaking specific activities.
c)Rural tourism is defined as a type of holiday where the place of stay is on a farm,
宠坏的女孩and the organized activities are connected with and around the farm. In this ca, rural tourism is limited to farm tourism or Agri-tourism (Grefe, 1994).
According to a broader definition, given by Gannon (1994: 5):
“Rural tourism includes a range of activities rvices and amenities provided by farmers and rural people to attract tourists to their area in order to generate extra income for their business”.英译
According to a European Union definition “rural tourism is a vast concept covering other rvices besides accommodation such as events, festivities, outdoor recreation, production and sale of handicrafts and agricultural products” (Commission of the European Communities, 1987: 218). Nevertheless, according to Murdoch (1993), not all tourism in rural areas can consider to be strictly “rural”.
Therefore becau of the complex nature of tourism as well as that of rural areas there is a considerable ambiguity as to what constitutes rural tourism. Indisputably there aris a need for more unequivocal definition of rural tourism (Lane, 1993).
美国大学托福要求2.3 THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL TOURISM
Rural tourism is not altogether a new phenomenon. Interest in the country side recreation started to grow towards the end of the eighteenth century as a reaction to the stress of the increasing urbanization and industrialization. The nature and the countryside became the “gaze” of tourists (Urry, 1990) and influenced poets and artists. However its growth and development is due to technological advance, the availability of free time and the increa in disposal income (Sharpley, 1996).
The biggest demand occurred after the end of the cond world war, and the most influential factor was the increa in car ownership, which enabled more people to visit the countryside (Harrison, 1991).
However, the rural tourism of the eighties, the nineties and our era is different. The number of tourists involved has incread significaly, the range of activities and types of rural holidays has conti
nued to expand, and tourism has developed in all types of countryside instead of being limited to areas of exceptional scenic beauty (Knudson, 1985).
2.4 THE DEMAND FOR RURAL TOURISM
Demand is a well defined part of the planning process. Bangure and Arbel (1976:76) go as far as to state that “supply-demand relationships are the cornerstone of planning in tourism industry”. However, the concept of demand is broad and the term demand is ud looly throughout the literature to mean anything from macroeconomic demand, to tourism need.
With reference to rural tourism, demand has significantly incread in recent years. Nevertheless this does not necessarily mean that it is in position to complete with the aside holidays. In order for rural tourism to be in a place to estimate its development, growth and value, and improve its position it is vital to measure the demand (Sharplaey,
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