Search

This chapter highlights the current and ongoing challenges facing rural tourism business operations in both developed and developing countries. It explores both the differences and similarities between rural business operations management in the developed and developing world. It also examines the interrelationships that exist between operations, finance and marketing in the delivery of the tourism offer in these two contexts. The chapter covers the breadth of operations management concepts, including capacity management, revenue and yield management, performance and productivity, service quality and servicescapes and supply chain management, among others.

This chapter provides an overview of rural business development in the developed world, offering UK, US and European perspectives on the development of rural tourism enterprises, including farm tourism and culinary tourism. The chapter illustrates the importance of public funding to the development of many rural businesses and recognizes that it is funding through mechanisms such as the European Union that has enabled many rural areas to pump-prime projects that would be unattractive to private sector investment due to the small-scale operation of so many rural businesses and the need for individuals to drive forward their own businesses. The importance of considering sustainability in developing a rural tourism product is also emphasized.

In order to explore key issues, practices and approaches in marketing and management across the breadth of the rural tourism sector, this book considers issues around political intervention, public interest and local sustainability, and discusses key issues affecting rural enterprises in both developed and developing world contexts. This is achieved through a mix of case studies and theoretical content specifically selected for both students and practitioners. The book comprises 15 edited chapters divided into three parts, firstly looking at Developed World perspectives (Part 1), then Developing World perspectives (Part 2) before looking at ways to foster and support entrepreneurship regardless of the geo-social context of individual businesses (Part 3).

This chapter evaluates the importance of quality management in the event sector, and examines the nature of quality and how this influences satisfaction and repeat visits to events. Concepts such as perceived quality, value and customer expectation are explored. In the same vein, theories such as cue utilization, gap analysis and Kano's theory of attractive quality are highlighted to provide frameworks to enhance student understanding and assist practitioners to evaluate and manage service quality in the industry.

This chapter explores the financial challenges of managing and delivering events and considers the ways in which events are funded. Topics around sponsorship will be discussed as fundraising tools, and the different models needed for financing public, private and third sector events will be analysed.

The concluding chapter will summarize and review the key discussions from the book while also considering current and future developments within the events industry.