Le tourisme rural : un produit de terroir ? Regard sur la destination Corse

Abstract

Well-known tourists’ destination within the Mediterranean basin, Corsica is experiencing a tourism based on the valorization of its territorial resources and its local Heritages. To that point, rural tourism is viewed here like an interesting product as it can tackle the main challenges for a local sustainable development. However, one can ask if that type of tourism can be used like a lead product for the destination: indeed, this rural tourism is still diffuse and not very well organised. Nevertheless, a better coordination of the sector’s stakeholders could lead to a better communication for the tourists’ destination. What is at stake here is to target the accurate consumers the local authorities want to attract. Indeed, if the objective is to offer a qualitative and a high-level product, why not doing of a certain rural tourism market sector a niche-product on the idea of the local-agro-food products, so-called “terroir” ones? That is the suggestion we examine here in our paper: how can rural tourism be turned as a “terroir product” in Corsica?

Keywords

• rural tourism
• niche product
• terroir
• Corsica