COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN TOURISM AND RURAL TOURISM DURING ECONOMIC CRISIS (2008-2010)

The purpose of this paper is to present the evolution of world tourism in crisis years (2008-2010), then comparing the data with the evolution of rural tourism for the same period. For this, we used statistical data provided by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), EUROGITES - European Federation of Rural Tourism, ANTREC National Association of Rural, Ecological and Cultural Tourism and National Institute of Statistics. By analyzing the data, we identified that, although tourism has been affected to some extent by the economic crisis we face, rural tourism hasn't suffered equally, to say the fact that many ordinary people have given up their regular holidays, focusing on the rural areas, where they can enjoy lower prices, but also special experiences. In conclusion, we can say that rural tourism is the tourism branch with the greatest impact in the period 2008-2010, and this trend still seems to be the case. Another observation is the fact that rural tourism hasn't been adversely affected by the crisis, the proof of this being the higher degree of occupancy in guesthouses, but also the increase of the accommodation capacity of the villages every year.