Tourism In Spain Research Articles

Rural tourism in Spain: natural resources as sources of competitive advantage

The aim of this paper is to analyse the state of the art of the Spanish rural tourism sector, as well as performing forecasts for this strategically important sector of Spanish economy. Section 1 of the paper describes rural tourism in Spain, while in Section 2 three time series belonging to this sector are analysed, and then forecasts are calculated by applying Box-Jenkins and Artificial Neural Nets methodologies. Finally, the paper summarises major conclusions and implications for policy makers and managers involved in rural tourism in Spain.

Rural tourism in Spain: an analysis of recent evolution

The aim of this paper is to analyse the evolution of Rural Tourism 1 The term Rural Tourism is applied in a wide sense, to cover a wide range of activities that are being developed in rural areas, directly related to the supply of services and experiences in tourist and leisure activities. 1 (RT) in Spain within a European context. The first step is to examine the development of different “models” of RT and trace some experiences of the application of European policy. In order to set the scene and understand this evolution, the collective imagery on which RT is based is also analysed. This is followed by a study of the development of tourist products and services in rural Spain since the 1980s, as diversification of the traditional sun/sand/sea (3S) tourist economy is sought. The analysis underlines the importance of the role of women, and the consequences of the activity for the economy of rural areas. The purpose is to identify differences in the pattern of evolution with more northern European countries, understand their causes and formulate recommendations for future development.

Rural tourism in Spain

AbstractThe paper describes the rapid recent growth in rural tourism facilities in Spain and attempts to account for the regional variations that exist. The range of activities involved in rural tourism is described and a significant trend towards the development of ‘active’ leisure pursuits in rural areas is identified. This clearly implies a major change in the use of the countryside, albeit in specific locations, but therefore calls into question the assertion of some scholars that rural restructuring is not a feature of contemporary Spain. In assessing the wider impact of rural tourism policies as part of overall rural development, however, it is clear that the main beneficiaries are not necessarily local residents. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Cultura, políticas de desarrollo y turismo rural en el ámbito de la globalización<a name=vnota></a>

En este texto analizamos las nuevas directrices del denominado turismo rural en España. Analizamos la importancia de este sector en relación a las nuevas directrices de la globalización, insertando este fenómeno dentro de un proceso mayor de remodelación del mundo rural, diseñado desde Europa y regulado por la Política Agraria Común (PAC) que, en esencia, persigue un nuevo diseño de ruralidad no basada exclusivamente en la producción agraria, sino en la diversificación de actividades económicas. En este contexto el apoyo a las pequeñas industrias tradicionales, el refuerzo del consumo de la tradición, de la naturaleza, ampliamente financiados por diversos Programas Europeos, conforman lo que denominaremos la construcción de la ruralidad, que, en primera instancia se ha esforzado por la creación de un producto rural que tiende a dibujar las nuevas directrices de un consumo diferencial y alimenta la creciente oferta del denominado turismo cultural. Tras realizar un panorama de esta situación en Andalucía, se ofrece el análisis de dos casos empíricos con una consolidada oferta de desarrollo basado en la potencialidad turística de sus productos locales.

Rural tourism in Spain

The aim of this study is to determine the features that characterize a new tourist class, called modern rural tourism, and to figure out the proportion of this market in one specific Spanish region. The geographical territory under study is El Alto Palancia, one of the best known rural resorts, within the Valencian region. In order to fulfil these goals, an empirical study was undertaken and an econometric model was applied afterwards. A wide set of variables has been selected for the Logit Binomial Model, which is shown to be useful in discriminating the modern from traditional tourists.

Farm tourism in Spain: a gender perspective

This article reviews the main objectives and theoretical framework of a research project on farm tourism in Spain that uses a gender perspective. The project considers the need for research on women and farm tourism and why it is essential to adopt a gender perspective in these studies. In addition to reviewing the main objectives of the research, this article outlines some aspects of the methodological and theoretical framework. The article ends with some preliminary results and conclusions. This research is still in a relatively early phase. Therefore, it is not possible to present more details of the findings at this stage. Our aim is to identify the main characteristics and problems of farm tourism in the context of rural restructuring in five Spanish rural areas. We focus on the experiences of women involved in these activities and analyse the services offered by farm tourism enterprises. One of the main aims is to ascertain why and how agrarian family units decide to engage in the tourism business; in that context, we examine their decisions on the range and type of services to provide. One way to look at these issues is to consider the interactions and relations, in terms of labour and income, between the agrarian activity and the farm tourism activity. Specifically, we examine how the lives of different family members have changed since the engagement with tourism. There is a need for more knowledge about whether family needs and objectives have remained constant or have changed. That insight is especially important in relation to the future of the agrarian units, as it affects the household's perception of agrarian and rural ways of life.

Tourism policy in Spain: An overview

The successful growth of tourism in Spain makes tourism policy more important than ever for this destination. The author proposes a reorganisation of the State Secretariat responsible for this sector of the economy. He also takes a look at the strengths and weakness of Spain's current tourism policy, taking Catalonia as an example.

Tourism and marketing in Spain: Analysis of the situation and future perspectives

The importance of tourism in Spain has not been accompanied by variety of marketing studies and research. In this paper the two great factors contributing to the slow development of tourism marketing in Spain are identified. On the one hand the youth of the discipline at international level and especially at national level. Secondly, the evolution of the market itself and the passive orientation of marketing. Next the contributions emanating from Spanish tourism marketing circles are reviewed and analysed in terms of their connection with lines of research emanating from the international literature. Finally, future research perspectives for tourism marketing are indicated.

Tourism research in Spain: The contribution of geography (1960–1995)

The Geography of Tourism in Spain is now at a par in terms of its scientific production with other European countries. Since the middle of the '80s the quality and volume of contributions is analogous to the rest of the European Union, although as a part of University Geography in Spain it has not achieved the level of dedication reached by other subjects considering the importance of tourist activities to the economy, the society and the territory of Spain. It could be said that the Geography of Tourism in Spain is in the international vanguard in dealing with Mediterranean coastal tourism, with the relationships between the residential real estate and tourism sectors and with aspects related to tourism and leisure in rural and protected areas.

The spatial structure of tourist accommodation and hotel demand in Spain

Tourism in Spain has developed dramatically in recent decades but the growth of the tourist industry has not been experienced evenly throughout the country. Tourism is largely concentrated in a small number of essentially coastal and insular provinces. Analysis by principal components shows that significant regional variations occur in the demand for hotels from different national groups but, with the exception of the French, the spatial preferences of each nationality have remained remarkably constant in the period 1965–1980. However, as growth rates have differed from market to market, so the demand for hotels has developed at different rates from one province to another. Regional variations in the seasonality of demand also occur. These findings highlight the need for further geographical studies such as this to provide more spatial detail than is to be found in most national studies and at the same time to supply the synthesis which unrelated regional or local case studies lack.