Rural tourism in the south of Spain: an opportunity for rural development

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.