Economic effects of rural tourism. Farm, food-and-wine and enhancement of cultural routes

During the last few years many different policies have tried to reduce the pressure of tourism, but most are unsuccessful. Among the proposed measures to limit the damage of a "touristicization" over the places affected by tourism is the promotion of alternative forms of tourism such as rural, which allow the reduction of tourist pressure on the major centers and facilitate the dissemination of knowledge of different environments. The alternative tourism will determine, according to the prediction model, a wide diversification of tourism and the success of those alternative forms of tourism niche with a strong territorial characterization. The sustainable rural tourism is a form of exploitation of the rural territory that emphasizes environmental and cultural specificity, commonly summarized by the term "cultural heritage". Sustainable tourism in rural areas as it is based on local heritage is, therefore, linked to natural ecosystems such as the typical aspects that characterize the local communities heritage, traditional food and wine and, more generally, to the local culture. The paper aims to verify the effects of tourism in development of rural areas with a particular attention to farm tourism, food-and-wine and cultural routes.