A Small-Town Economic Revitalisation Conundrum: Focus on Tourism, Manufacturing, or Both?

Abstract

The decline in small towns is a concern in many countries. The manufacturing and tourism sectors are considered to be important in the revitalisation of towns but could be subject to ‘Dutch disease’. This is a malady in which success in one sector leads to a decline in the other. The importance of, and relationships between, the manufacturing and tourism sectors of more than 500 United States micropolitan statistical areas (micropolitans) were extensively investigated by following settlement scaling theory. Publicly available 2016 datasets were used to test a hypothesis that Dutch disease between the two sectors is important. Both sectors are present and important in virtually all of the micropolitans. Regression analyses, including log–log (power-law) analyses, were used to examine the population-based and enterprise-based orderliness in the micropolitan demographic–socioeconomic–entrepreneurial nexus. There is much orderliness, and non-linear relationships are prevalent. No evidence of the presence of Dutch disease was recorded except in one case. When the strengths of the two sectors (as a percentage of their enterprise numbers in relation to total enterprise numbers) are compared, a weak negative relationship is observed. The hypothesis that Dutch disease is important was rejected. A focus on both sectors is recommended to build resilience and to contribute to the revitalisation/development of small towns.

Temporal and Geographic Stress Testing of Entrepreneurial Proportionalities in United States Counties

“…The presence of orderliness in the demographic-socioeconomic-entrepreneurial domain of human settlements [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] was reconfirmed. This study focused on smaller U.S. counties in order to include sensible measurements of new entrepreneurship in the analysis.…”

“…World 2022, 3 404 U.S. counties [7], U.S. micropolitan statistical areas [8], and U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) [9] are linearly proportional to their population sizes [6][7][8][9]. The second proportionality indicates that new entrepreneurship (the ability to successfully start new business types not yet present in a human settlement) in South African towns [10] and smaller U.S. counties [11] is sub-linearly proportional to their total enterprise numbers.…”

Pre-Emptively Managing Overtourism by Promoting Rural Tourism in Low-Density Areas: Lessons from Madeira

“…However, for all purposes, tourism is the mainstay of the economy of islands, with most locals compelled to adopt a "pro-growth ideology" whether they want it or not and to follow a "growth fetish of tourism" in line with the neoliberal paradigm ( [12] p. 1930), [31]. In most cases, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and non-independent territories affiliated with the EU are reliant on tourismled growth as a measure of last resort for development ( [12], p. 1926, [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]). In the island context, adopting a degrowth agenda or eschewing the "growth imperative" while still struggling to reach high levels of human development is politically unpalatable for the moment.…”

“…In a number of instances, the "problem" from the local residents' point of view lies in the increasing levels of income inequality, which is quite often a by-product of the lack of tourism development in the periphery of the main tourism hotspots. Small towns in the rural hinterland are prone to be overlooked by regional politicians, operators and investors [32]. In such circumstances, tourism does not contribute to the quality of life of those living in the periphery, and many local stakeholders are irritated by insufficient tourism opportunities and benefits.…”