Methodological System to Determine the Development Potential of Rural Tourism in Extremadura, Spain

There are methodologies that seek to know the tourism potential of the territory. However, their use has been very scarce and consequently, tourism plans lack a real vision of the possibility of developing tourism. In the case of Extremadura, Spain, a specific methodology has been proposed that considers types and subtypes of variables, both in terms of heritage and tourism facilities. In addition, these variables are ranked in five classes, and their importance is weighted according to the opinion of the demand. The results offer a global vision of the potential, coinciding with the area determined by official organizations in the country, but also facilitate the specific study of specific tourism sub-types. They also show that there is not always a clear relationship between the attractiveness of the environment and tourist facilities. It is concluded that it is important to bet on these evaluation methodologies to enhance the knowledge of any territory to determine its capacity to develop tourism. On the other hand, it helps tourism plans to be applied in the territory to consider the potential of each municipality to promote tourism.