Abstract:
Rural tourism can be envisaged as contributing to economic and
social development of local communities, by including tourism policies, as
well as specific programs and projects that aim at the reduction of poverty
levels. Based on the analysis of a series of different country experiences, our
paper emphasizes that, from the host community’s point of view, essential
goals of tourism development must include generating higher levels of
income, creating new employment opportunities, and increasing foreign
exchange flows. Equally important, any such development must also protect
the environment and especially the local culture, to which tourists are
attracted in the first place. This is why the potential of rural tourism in local
communities should be a central consideration in discussions on policies
regarding poverty alleviation. An associated challenge is how to ensure that
the local communities retain their “authentic” character to ensure
sustainable long-term success without becoming too dependant on tourism
but yet still benefit enough economically to make it worthwhile. Throughout
the analysis, we find that tourism is a potent force that is intimately
intertwined with rural issues throughout the world and has had a dramatic
impact most notably in developing countries. But, rural tourism, though a
powerful tool for economic development and heritage sustainability, needs
great care and sensitivity in planning, management and marketing to be
socially as well as economically viable. The paper concludes by stating that
tourism must not distort, but rather complement the local village economic
which is usually based on agri-rural production.