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in many communities. The second section will outline research undertaken in seven rural communities in Southwestern Ontario in an effort to highlight the problems and issues that are erupting as tourism development continues to intensify. Having outlined the impacts of current tourism-led approaches to rural development and growth, this paper then suggests that there are opportunities for tourism planning to be undertaken in a more engaging, participatory and potentially less damaging way. This paper concludes by introducing some of the next stages of research in order to give direction to an alternative planning process for tourism in rural communities. I. Introducing Rural Tourism Rural tourism might seem easily defined as travel to rural areas but research has shown that it is much more complex (Lane, 1993b). There are a variety of examples of the ways tourism is undertaken in rural areas, including: nature-based activities, festivals, heritage events, aboriginal-based attractions and events, agri-tourism, arts and crafts shows, community theatre and others. As Lane points out, rural tourism is a multi-faceted and complex activity which includes everything from farm-based tourism to educational travel, health tourism, ethnic tourism and ecotourism (1993a). Part of the reason for the complexity rests with the difficulty inherent in defining rural areas themselves especially as their roles change in an increasingly globalizing economy. While much of the focus upon how to define what constitutes rural areas has been concerned with its changing function in the global economy, Panelli (2001) argues that the meanings and poli-
In the interest of space, this paper will not discuss the methodological underpinnings of this research. For details, see Reid, D.G., J. Taylor and H. Mair. (2000a) Rural tourism development: research report . School of Rural Planning and Development, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario.
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A similar version of this section was presented at the 6 th Annual World Leisure and Recreation Congress, Bilbao, Spain, July, 2000.