Agrotourism and the Rural Environment: Constraints and Opportunities in the Mediterranean Less-Favoured Areas

Abstract

The environmental problems of the Mediterranean areas are very important, due to the continuous growth in tourism and the concentration of economic activities along the coastline. Meanwhile, rural regions in the hinterland, mainly on the mountains and hills, suffer from population decline and the abandonment of productive, agricultural activities. Agrotourism projects have been introduced within the framework of European Union policies for sustainable development in the less favoured, not to say, fragile, rural zones. They aim to exploit the natural and sociocultural heritage (rural architecture, gastronomy, folklore), motivating country people to keep their farming activities and allowing them to earn complementary income. This extra income is assumed to offer partial remedy to the seasonal or permanent under-employment of family members, mainly women or future successors of the farm; it can even be essential for the socio-economic reproduction of farm household and, therefore, for the maintenance of agriculture in small areas. The main question this paper asks is whether agrotourism can contribute to the preservation of the rural environment.