The direct economic impact of alternative types of the rural tourism

Abstract

Rural tourism has come to occupy a prominent position in the debate about rural restructuring in all OECD countries, partly because of demand changes which favour rural tourism and partly because rural agencies recognise a need to provide economic activities with potential for growth in a rural economy in which traditional providers of rural employment (such as agriculture) have been shedding labour at a rapid rate. Well-designed strategy is essential to its success in impacting on the rural economy. The structures for collaboration and co-operation must be developed and combined with a process of education and training. Co-operative effort must be effective and sustainable. The tourism related businesses should not be isolated from the larger community and its issues.The principal motivation for a community, business or region to serve tourists is generally economic. An individual business is interested primarily in its own revenues and costs, while a community or region is concerned with tourism’s overall contribution to the economy, as well as social, fiscal and environmental impacts. A good understanding of tourism’s economic impacts is therefore important for the tourism industry, government officials, and the community as a whole.The principal objective of the study, that is reported here, was to determine the potential income of farmers from the provision of agro-tourism services. First, the paper reviews selected results of the visitor spending survey in alternative types of rural tourism of the region Southeast (Czech Republic); second the direct economic benefit of the agro-tourism in this region is estimated, and finally, critical factors reducing the effectiveness of agro-tourism as a rural development instrument are drawn.

Keywords

• rural tourism
• agro-tourism
• visitor spending
• income generation