Rural tourism: A sustainable alternative

Abstract

The aim of this article is to show and share the results of the research we made in order to improve the situation of sustainable interior rural tourism in Spain. We chose our region: Aragon and we studied the case. We had to consider the financial crisis in the hope that our results would contribute to minimize it. We knew beforehand that rural tourism had been less affected than other sectors but still it was important to reach our goal. It had to be proved that rural interior tourism could be sustainable in Spain by means of quantitative secondary data. It is well-known that tourism is the first source and activity in Spain, but due to the increase in the international sector of new exotic destinations abroad, rural tourism could be threatened and sustainable rural interior tourism could be an alternative for present and future times. We got qualitative data through personal interviews to experts and a SWOT analysis, id est, the measure and description of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as an instrument to measure the state of the question within a theoretical framework of sustainable tourism. The results of this research have proved it. Rural tourism is existing and viable in Aragon, with important benefits for present and future opportunities.