RURAL TOURISM
Any form of tourism that showcases the rural
life, art, culture and heritage at rural locations, thereby benefiting the
local community economically and socially as well as enabling interaction
between the tourists and the locals for a more enriching tourism experience can
be termed as rural tourism. Rural tourism is essentially an activity which
takes place in the countryside. It is multi-faceted and may entail
farm/agricultural tourism, cultural tourism, nature tourism, adventure tourism,
and eco-tourism. As against conventional tourism, rural tourism has certain
typical characteristics like; it is experience oriented, the locations are
sparsely populated, it is predominantly in natural environment, it meshes with
seasonality and local events and is based on preservation of culture, heritage
and traditions.
Tourism is synthesized from mass and alternative tourism.
Mass tourism is characterized by large numbers of people seeking relevant to
their culture holidays in popular resort destinations. Alternative tourism is
sometimes referred to as “special interest tourism” or “responsible tourism”
and its usually taken to mean alternative forms of tourism which give emphasis
on the contact and understanding of inhabitants’ way of living and the local
natural environment . As to the specific forms of alternative tourism,
identifies such forms as cultural, educational, scientific, adventure,
agri-tourism, with rural, ranch and farm subsets.
Rural tourism is among the most polymorphous of all forms of Special Interest
Tourism (SIT). The diversity of attractions included within rural tourism embrace:
Indigenous and European heritage sites
• Aspects of culture (agriculture)
• Industrial tourism (farm practices)
• Educetioanl tourism
• Special events
• Ecological attractions
• Adventure tourism
• Wine tourism
Such diversity represents major opportunities for rural areas that have turned to
tourism as a means of supplementing diminished incomes.