Analysis of the distribution of rural and conventional tourism accommodation providers in the rural towns of Extremadura

Abstract

Extremadura comprises 388 towns and villages-165 in the province of Badajoz and 223 in the province of Cáceres. Most of these have steadily set up a network of rural tourism businesses starting in 1992, when the first piece of legislation regulating this type of accommodation providers (Decreto) was passed. At present, regulations dictate that rural accommodation businesses can be opened in towns smaller than 10,000 inhabitants. This population limit actually implies that these businesses can be set up in 96.6% of municipalities in Extremadura. Based on these principles, this paper seeks to measure and analyse the distribution of rural accommodation businesses, by contrast to conventional accommodation providers, in these towns. Results indicate that there are striking differences between the two groups of small towns established for our research: those with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants and those ranging between 2,000 and 10,000 inhabitants.