Rural tourism as an alternative to the development for rural areas and the creation of employment

Abstract

In the recent years some alternatives to the sun and beach tourism have emerged due to, overall, the change that the tourist consumers’ demand has undergone. This metamorphosis that the demand has suffered, has favoured the chance to generate employment in the rural areas through the tourist activity. The rural tourism is an activity of an increasing expansion not only in Spain but also in other countries of the European Union that entails, in the most of the cases, an economic growth in the areas that have generated it. It is necessary its study with the aim of identifying the demand of the already mentioned tourist group not only into a qualitative level but also in a quantitative level, in order to know if a sustainable tourism is being developed, which improves the quality life and the income level of the rural area’s inhabitants. The research that has been carried out, it has been structured in two parts: in the former, an analysis of this tourist sub-sector (rural tourism in Spain) has been carried out and about the evolution undergone in the recent years, with the aim of identifying the models that let obtain predictions about the demand of rural tourism in a short-term and medium-term. In the second part, two types of models will be carried out according to the positive evolution of the rural tourism. Some of these models are carried out using the Box-Jenkins methodology, and which have the idea of estimating the demand of employment generated by this sector. Others are based on logic models to know the profile of the individuals who work in this sector or apply for employment in it.