INTEGRATED CULTURAL TOURISM: NEW EXPERIENCES IN MOUNTAIN AREAS

Abstract

Tourism has for some time been viewed as providing a lifeline for mountain areas where agriculture is in decline and few alternative employment opportunities exist. One of the manifestations is cultural tourism, which, besides revaluing the heritage of a territory, can be made compatible with rural tourism. This paper analyzes integrated cultural tourism in mountain areas, including the scale, degree of embeddedness, endogeneity, sustainability and role of interactions between tourists and local people. This research is based on a survey with cultural tourists in the Pyrenees (Catalonia, Spain). They are presented in the context of the experience of tourists in mountainous areas, related to the practical operation of integrated cultural tourism. The results reveal that this cultural tourism has strong links to the natural environment in the study area but that there are existing threats to integration in the physical and social domains.