Sustainable Development and Rural Tourism in Depopulated Areas

The high degree of depopulation in certain areas of Spain is a serious threat to the country, and is aggravated by the ongoing loss of population from those areas. Rural tourism is one of the activities that can help prevent this depopulation. However, to successfully promote such tourism, we must consider the elements that have the greatest influence on tourists when they choose one location over another, or one accommodation over another. Extensive data have been collected from 1658 valid surveys of tourists in one of the most depopulated areas of Spain. Several multivariate techniques were then applied to the data, including Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA). Factors were obtained that identified both the different motivations that influence tourists, and the variables that identify the province based on its image. An analysis was then made of how both the variables thus identified the influence of the formation of the image that tourists take away from the visit. Tourists are most strongly motivated by natural landscapes, monuments, or events of cultural interest, i.e., natural and cultural attractions rather than social ones, and the cognitive image has the greatest influence on the formation of the new image. The principal findings of this research are that the future of many of these depopulated areas depends on successfully promoting both their beautiful landscapes and their cultural heritage, as well as developing and improving the areas themselves so that the depopulation is slowed down or even reversed, to the benefit of the local population. This would also benefit the local and regional authorities and the establishments linked to rural tourism in the area, increasing their profits and raising the level of employment in the province.