Abstract
Rural tourism as part of the overall tourist offer in Macedonia is currently booming. Almost every tourist offer of all the travel agencies contains, among other things, visiting interesting rural tourist areas. This kind of tourism is an important alternative form of tourism that offers a higher level of meeting modern man's needs that urban lifestyle is not able to satisfy. The dynamic and stressful life in urban areas contributes to people seeking peaceful areas that are far from urban centers which, with their natural potentials, offer the modern and somewhat tired man quality contents for relaxing and resting. These are rural areas that are identified with certain geographical regions possessing natural beauty, historic sights and cultural events that are an important factor for the development and promotion of rural tourism. Modern entrepreneurs perceive rural tourism as economic development of rural areas which brings significant revenues for families dealing with this kind of tourism, and also as a significant factor in keeping the population in these rural areas. The paper contains conceptual determination and definition of rural tourism, rural tourism types, and retains the profile of rural tourism visitors. The second part of the paper analyzes the situation with rural tourism in Macedonia, especially the legal framework for the development of rural tourism, institutional framework, human resources, accommodation and catering facilities, funding opportunities, promotional activities, etc.
Highlights
To explain the essence of rural tourism we will first define the concept of tourism
Rural tourism is typical for people who live in highly urbanized countries, wishing to return to the primordial needs of a man in nature and natural beauty, while not spending a lot of financial resources, and discovering unknown crafts, specific cuisine, and new cultures.[8]
From the analysis of the provisions of the Law on Tourism and the Law on Catering it can be concluded that a precise definition of the scope of the term rural tourism is needed, in accordance with the standards of the World Tourism Organization, as well as the expansion of the scope of tourism services offered in rural tourism
Summary
To explain the essence of rural tourism we will first define the concept of tourism. There are several definitions of the term tourism, for us the most acceptable one is that "tourism is traveling for fun, pleasure, seeing interesting regions, treatment etc."[1] Etymologically the word tourism (tour) has its roots in several similar words in different languages (Lat. "tornare", Gr. "tornos", Fr. "tour") which means circle, moving around a point or axis. According to Jafari "Tourism is the study of people who travel outside their place of residence, the industry that meets their needs and the impact that people and industry have on the socio-cultural, economic and physical environment of the host"[2]. According Matheison and Wall, "Tourism is the temporary movement of people out of their permanent residence and place of work and it covers the actions performed during their stay, and in facilities built to meet their needs".3. From all the above mentioned definitions of tourism we can draw one common feature and it is that tourism is related to "persons traveling from their permanent place of residence"[5]
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