A quantitative analysis on Romanian rural areas, agritourism and the impacts of European Union’s financial subsidies

Abstract

The European Union's specific financial subsidies have supported pluriactivity development in farms through agritourism. By allocating specific funds aimed at encouraging farm diversification and increasing farmers' income, the European Union seeks to reduce rural marginalisation due to emigration, which is a central target of the Common Agricultural Policy. Thus, this research aims to quantitatively assess the impact of these financial subsidies on the growth of Romanian agritourism, determine the socio-economic variables that have affected this, and assess whether agritourism has lessened permanent emigration from Romania. The results reveal that the GDP levels and the number of employed people have influenced the direct role of financial subsidies allocated by the Common Agricultural Policy and aimed towards agritourism growth. The analysis also showed a few significant factors impacting rural emigration. Agritourism is indirectly connected to population density, suggesting that, over the time of investigation, less populated areas showed significant growth in agritourism. This research realises its novelty by investigating if agritourism serves as a socio-economic protection in rural Romania and by assessing which specific aids—decoupled payments or rural development supports—allocated by the Common Agricultural Policy― successfully restrict permanent emigration and marginalisation in rural areas.