Journal of Rural Studies 22 (2006) 117–128 Re-conceptualising rural resources as countryside capital: The case of rural tourism Brian Garrod à , Roz Wornell, Ray Youell Institute of Rural Sciences, University of Wales Aberystwyth, Llanbadarn Campus, Aberystwyth, SY23 3AL, UK Abstract Commentators tend to agree that the rural resource is becoming increasingly subject to pressures arising from an ever wider range of economic, social, political and environmental influences. This paper focuses on the case of rural tourism in illustrating the advantages of adopting a sustainable development approach to identifying suitable policies and strategic action plans to assist in addressing these increasingly complex challenges. The central proposition is that much can be achieved in raising the profile of rural tourism and the nature of its interdependence with rural resources by re-conceptualising the rural resource as a kind of ‘capital asset’ of the rural tourism industry. Drawing on recent thinking by ecological economists, an approach based on the concept of the constant capital rule is set out. The paper then outlines some of the benefits of re-casting the rural resource as ‘countryside capital’, using two case-study vignettes by way of illustration. A major conclusion is that re-conceptualising the rural resource as countryside capital provides a more holistic and integrated understanding of the rural tourism production system, which will be required if rural communities are to capture more effectively the potential benefits rural tourism has to offer them. This, in turn, enables a much clearer articulation of the rationale for public-, private- and voluntary-sector investment in rural resources to be made. r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Rural tourism; Constant capital approach; Countryside capital; Investment; Promotional images 1. Introduction One of the few things that rural commentators would seem to agree on at present is that the countryside is currently undergoing a period of unprecedented change (Blunden and Curry, 1985; Robinson, 1990; Allanson and Whitby, 1996; Ilbery, 1998; Napton et al., 1999). 1 Moreover, the pace of change is considered to be increasing, making it ever more difficult for countryside decision makers to address the challenges they are being presented with. The increasingly complex and inter- connected nature of these challenges has led writers such as Marsden (1998) to employ the term ‘rural restructur- ing’ to reflect the fundamentally different nature of the changes that are now taking place in the countryside. 2 This complexity and interconnectedness is said to increase the potential for conflicts to arise (Butler et al., 1998), so that progress in meeting any one of the specific challenges identified would seem inevitably to detract from efforts to address one or more of the others. This tends to encourage a view that trade-offs ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/jrurstud 0743-0167/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2005.08.001 à Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 1970 621638; fax: +44 1970 611264. E-mail address: bgg@aber.ac.uk (B. Garrod). 1 This is not to suggest that any degree of consensus has been reached among rural commentators about the nature and extent of such changes. In the UK, for example, the problems facing rural areas are said to range from the uncertain future of farming and increased pressures on farmers to diversify their activities, to the lack of affordable housing in rural areas and the creep of suburbanisation, to concerns relating to the out-migration of younger people and transport problems in rural areas (Countryside Agency, 2003a). Hodge and Monk (2004), on the other hand, argue that many generalisations about changing conditions in ‘rural England’ are based on essentially (footnote continued) fallacious presumptions, and warn against over-simplification of the policy concerns of rural areas. 2 See also Hoggart and Paniagua (2001), who critique and further develop the concept of rural restructuring.