Abstract
Rural tourism networks (RTN) are having an important role in the development of sustainable tourism. This paper explores the value that connections created amongst rural entrepreneurs can bring to a rural area in proximity to an urban centre and the challenges in nurturing and sustaining lasting collaborations that could benefit the rural area. Matakana, a growing rural tourism destination in New Zealand, is the setting for a case study where 11 rural entrepreneurs and tourism operators participate in semi-structured in-depth interviews. Findings show different benefits that rural tourism networks brings to the area within a value creation process. Synergic products and entrepreneurs cross-promotion are highly valued outcomes of recently formed rural tourism networks. The last part of this paper is also unfolding a few challenges and difficulties experienced between and within the actors in the rural tourism network