BACK-HOME TOURISM IN EXTREMADURA, SPAIN: SPENDING PATTERNS AND MOTIVATION

Abstract

“Back-home tourism”, “Tourism of return” or also typified as “Countryman tourism” is a category little considered by experts, academics and legislators in rural development, however in the last decades it is gaining prominence and special benefits are attributed to the unpopulated rural areas of the south of Europe. This tourism returns to their roots, in many cases where they have a second home or where they can share the home of relatives or friends. This tourism seeks an imagined habitat based on personal experience where family life is essential to repeat the visit and it is characterized by a consumption practice with nuances different from generic rural tourism. In this paper we try to identify the consumption patterns and motivations of this segment of the tourism market.