Characteristics and Peculiarities of Rural Tourism in the Balearic Islands

Abstract

Rural tourism is a complement to quality food production efforts in its goal toward restoring vitality among rural areas in Europe, affronting the rest of the world's more productive and less costly food-producing industry. Countries such as France, Italy, Austria and Germany have pioneered rural tourism projects and have proved its revitalizing capacity. Generally, the growth of rural tourism in Spain has resulted in establishments with a wide variety of typologies, prices and levels of comfort. The Balearic Islands have also developed this new sector and the result is a style with characteristics differing from those of other regions. In the Balearic Islands, it is a sector that complements traditional tourism by offering small establishments located in rural areas. Often their services could be ranked as four or five stars and the establishments are commonly managed by people with previous work experience in the sector. The average costumer can be described as a foreigner who stays on the island for around a week and a half. The aim of this paper is to summarize rural tourism's legislation, quantitative development and the most common characteristics of its services and customers (including the differences between islands). Important differences when comparing with other forms of rural tourism in mainland Spain are also highlighted and the synergies existing with the predominant “sun and beach” mass tourism.