Small Firms and Wine and Food Tourism in New Zealand: Issues of Collaboration, Clusters and Lifestyles

Abstract

Industrialisation, globalisation, tariff reduction, widespread growth in wealth and leisure, increased environmental awareness, growing land use conflict, ageing populations, inconsistent farm incomes and declining agricultural employment, and many other factors have served to change the face and structure of rural economies, and the lifestyles of rural people. In addition, people’s expectations of rural areas are changing as greater emphasis is given to the conservation and maintenance of natural and cultural heritage and amenity landscapes with often little appreciation of the industrial forces which led to the creation of those landscapes and heritage. In short, economic, environmental and social developments and issues are putting increasingly varied and complex pressures on rural areas in many industrialised countries resulting in new forms of rural production and consumption associated with economic diversification and restructuring (Butler et al. 1998).