Dear Colleagues,

Since the 1970s, but with greater intensity in the 1980s, strong, social, economic, and cultural transformations have led to the post-Fordist or post-productivist countryside, determining what researchers identify as “rural restructuring”. Evolving from a vision of the rural area as an undifferentiated space for wide production of food, people now consider it a space with different functions—naturalization, residency, landscape and environment, and historical and cultural memory—that complement or even replace production as well as a space with many economic, social and ecological dynamics; these functions differ from one territory to another (Belletti e Berti, 2011).

In recent years, the rural world has undergone new changes. Nature conservation and local culture have become increasingly important. Historic buildings and traditional rural societies have received more attention. Some rural regions that are more accessible than others have been repopulated with the arrival of those who have left the city (counter-urbanization). However, for many rural areas, the trend towards decline remains. The contemporary literature suggests two concepts to describe the current processes: multifunctionality and diversification, both relating to the individual farm and to the territorial system examined (Wilson, Pacciani, Saxena).

The first concept of multifunctionality refers to the various functions performed by the agricultural sector that are placed side by side to the "traditional" with the production of goods made for the market (mainly food, but also fibers, timber, and other products). Until twenty years ago, the public intervention in support of the agricultural sector was responsible for the maintenance of employment and the regulation of migration flows from rural to urban areas; currently, privileged aspects of environmental care and overall quality of life are attributable to the following categories: revitalization and socio-economic development of rural areas; food variety understood as availability of a plurality of different products to limit the increasing standardization of food imposed by the industrialization and globalization of models of production and consumption; and maintenance and reproduction of the physical and anthropic environment. These new features, however, cannot be separated from traditional farming, but they derive from the complex relationships between agricultural production, nature, and the human environment in which the production takes place.

The second abovementioned concept is diversification related to the coexistence of traditional agricultural activity together with industrial, handicraft, tourist and recreational, nature protection, and residential activities. Diversification plays an important role in formulating the policies of agricultural and rural areas in consideration of the opportunities for income and employment (and its induced effects) that may result and that may partly offset the reduction in income derived from the exercise of traditional agricultural activities. Diversification can also represent a mode of remuneration of some of the production processes’ multifunctionalities and thus can contribute to their reproduction and maintenance over time.

The growing complexification of rural tourism is reflected in its possible definitions according to accommodation, location, activities, interest, or motivations. It is considered to be opposite to urban tourism, referring to a certain form of tourism realized in a different, unusual place. Taking into account all the different considerations and research, it is not easy to give a unique global definition. Generally, rural tourism activity is endowed with some uniqueness, as it takes place in rural areas and the main motivation is the pursuit of tourist attractions associated with relaxation, the countryside, traditional culture, and escape from the maddening crowd. A further definition considers rural tourism as "that tourist activity in rural areas, structured by an integrated range of leisure, directed to a reasoned request by contact with the native environment and hav[ing] a relationship with local society "(Committees of the European Communities).

Rural tourism has been considered as a chance to promote local development, thus representing an economic activity that involves a change in rural areas. Consequently, marketing activities begin to play a very important role, and selling rural tourism means selling activities in a rural space (for instance, walking, climbing, hunting, adventure, sport and health tourism, educational travel, arts, and heritage), thus showing its main facets. This is an economic activity with potential social, economic, and environmental impacts that are highly dependent on the local characteristics of a region, and it has the potential to stimulate rural economies with positive effects on farm income. However, the extent of the financial benefits and economic impact is still contested due to conservative estimates.

One of the priorities of rural tourism development is, thus, its sustainability: "Sustainable rural tourism is to find the correct harmony in the relationship established between the needs of the visitor, the place and the receiving community" (Countryside Commission, 1995). According to F. López Palomeque and J. F. Vera Rebollo (2001), the main functions of rural tourism are the following: completing agriculture, recovering the traditional architectural heritage, managing natural and cultural resources and promoting the integration of the local population to tourism to improve their quality of life. Furthermore, rural tourism should generate additional revenue, contribute to the economic revitalization of depressed areas, promote the maintenance of agriculture, and incorporate women in paid work.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to investigate the possible combination of sustainability and the economic and social development of activities related to rural tourism through extant literature reviews and case studies. We welcome the submission of original papers that include conceptual, empirical, analytical, or design-oriented approaches to the following topics:

• Monitoring of carrying capacity and mechanisms for managing tourist flows in rural areas;
• Systems and tools to measure the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of rural tourism;
• Integration between public tourism policies and private strategies in the promotion and implementation of sustainable practices;
• Policies for promoting public participation in the planning and development of sustainable rural tourism;
• The impacts of tourism on traditional agricultural activities;
• Identity enhancement of the territory and its productions;
• "Good practices" in the implementation of rural tourism sustainability.

References:

Ammirato S., Felicetti A. M., The Agritourism as a Means of Sustainable Development for Rural Communities: A Research from the Field, The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Vol. 8, No 1: 17-29, 2014.

DeRosa, M.; McElwee, G.; Smith, R. Farm diversification strategies in response to rural policy: A case from rural Italy, Land Use Policy, 81: 291–301, 2019.

Hernández-Mogollón J-M.; Campón-Cerro A-M., Leco-Berrocal F.; Pérez-Díaz A.; Agricultural diversification and the sustainability of agricultural systems: possibilities for the development of agrotourism, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, December 2011, Vol.10, No. 12: 1911-1921.

Ivars Baidal J. A., Turismo y espacios rurales: conceptos, filosofías y realidades, Investigaciones geográficas, 23: 59‑88, 2000.

Ivona A.; Lopez L., Rural development in the region of Apulia (Italy). Initiatives and practices: between past and future, in X CITURDES Congreso Internacional de Turismo Rural y Desarrollo Sostenible, in Santos SolÌa X. M., Taboada de Zuñiga P., Lopez L., (Edìtores), pp. 539-553, 2016.

López Palomeque, F. , El turismo en el desarrollo local y regional: aportaciones conceptuales, in Luzón, J. L., Dantaslé, N. (eds.) Desarrollo Regional, Barcelona, Xarxa Tematica Medamérica, pp. 109‑140, 2001.

Phillip, S.; Hunter, C.; Blackstock, K., A typology for defining agritourism, Tourism Management, 31(6): 754‑758, 2010.

Tanguay, G.A.; Rajaonson, J.; Therrien, M.C. Sustainable tourism indicators: Selection criteria for policy implementation and scientific recognition, J. Sustain. Tour, 21: 862–879, 2013.

Assoc. Prof. Antonietta Ivona
Guest Editor

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• agricultural diversification
• landscape sustainability
• tourism
• multifunctionality
• identity
• carrying capacity
• management of visitor flows
• sustainability measurement.