Three trends in particular appear to have
favoured rural areas. First, there has been a
significant growth in demand for leisure and
recreation. This has found expression in the
growth of organised outdoor pursuits that use
the countryside as an open space; and in the
cultural symbolism of the ‘rural idyll’, in which
notions of romanticism, heritage and national
identity are central motifs (Matless 1998). The
result has been the development of a thriving
rural leisure/tourism industry, based on the
premise that many of those rural ‘attributes’
most likely to be consumed by tourists can be
commodified: that is transformed into products
that can be packaged, marketed and sold (Ray
1998, 1999; Hopkins 1998). Second, the last
three decades have seen a marked displacement
of manufacturing employment from large
urban centres to small towns and rural areas.