Introduction

In writing this book, our intention has been to marry theory and somewhat abstract concepts with the very real situation of tourism in small communities across Canada. To this end, we sought to introduce and discuss some very evocative and instructive case studies. By presenting those cases, we aimed to describe ‘practical’ or ‘on ground’ examples of rural tourism development in action. Sprinkled throughout those cases were key concepts that we considered vital to understanding each case. The purpose of this brief chapter, then, is to look across the case studies to pull out major themes and key conceptual issues that are relevant to all of the cases and to the study of tourism development in rural areas more generally.

Cross-case analysis

Once the case studies were completed and written, it became obvious there were some predominant themes that related well to, and could help us to better understand, what was going on in the other communities. For instance, the issue of gentrification, of obvious relevance to the case of Lunenburg, could be seen at play in Port Stanley. The notion of theming and branding, while central to the discussion of what is happening in Vulcan, could also help explain some of the processes at work in Canso and in Lunenburg. Once we began to see the broader themes at work across our cases, we started to craft a set of foundational concepts – or premises – upon which we could build our overarching argument for what we see as healthy, responsible and appropriate tourism development in rural areas (see Table 7.1). Further, we present full chapters on these major themes.