TITLE:
Rural Tourism in the South of Spain: An Opportunity for Rural Development
AUTHORS:
Genoveva Millán Vázquez de la Torre, Luis Amador Hidalgo, Juan Manuel Arjona Fuentes
KEYWORDS:
Rural Tourism; Rural Development; Natural parks; Andalusia; Demand Forecast
JOURNAL NAME:
Modern Economy,
Vol.5 No.2,
February
19,
2014
ABSTRACT:
Tourism is one of the most enriching experiences, and even more so if it involves a rural
habitat, in contact with the environment. This kind of tourism, one of the most
requested by society currently, offers a great chance for developing rural
areas. Rural tourism has become the solution for some problems that have become
evident in those areas: the high rate of unemployment, rural exodus and primary
sector dependence. So the practice of this activity will generate and diversify
income, and create employment. For this reason it is necessary to offer a
product adapted to consumer tourist demand, and therefore it is essential to
know profile of the tourist. The Andalusian region, in the south of Spain, is
famous for being a tourist area of great singularity exhibiting different
degrees of development and models of touristic exploitation, strongly
characterized by its offer of sun and beach. Today, this community does not
limit itself to offering only a sun and beach experience since not all tourists
that choose it as their destination have exclusive preference for this sector.
Among all the new proposals, one modality is rural tourism, which is the focal
point of this study, especially those initiatives for rural tourism in natural
parks. Rural tourism is a development factor that will help to correct regional
imbalances. Developmental politics related directly to wealth generation in
these rural areas can be bolstered by this activity. This study will estimate a
forecast to model monthly rural tourist demand in Andalusia for 2014. Its aim
is to reveal its evolution in the immediate future in order to propose measures
to encourage activity in said tourism sector, by making use of the 24 natural
parks and protected areas located in this region.