TERRITORIO Y DIVERSIDAD BIOLóGICA

Ecoturismo

Summary: Some traditional rural cultures conserve the exploitation of their natural resources using as a base the imitation and maintenance of natural processes which are of undeniable environmental interest. To the recognised value of this can be added, at the present moment, the fact that they are of also of great touristic interest. International promoters of this industry are planning to complete the offer of classical tourism with the cultural one (nature, history, architecture, quality landscapes), recognising the potential of certain territories. This "offer" of the environment is not, as has been pointed out, an alternative to mass tourism; it is complementary, but might foreseeably lead to this.

In nature, biological diversity constitutes, in itself, an important component of the recognised natural and cultural values on offer, but it also permits us to categorise the territory into its different states of use or abandonment. Planning of tourism requires knowledge of the ecological characteristics of the offer, especially if rural activities are abandoned for new forms of economy -among these, tourism itself- and also analysis of the response of this to the different types of "demand". Proyectos asociados (Related research projects): Análisis de potencialidades y limitaciones de uso del patrimonio natural y rural para el desarrollo del turismo cultural en la zona Els Ports-Maestrat.Objetivos generales: contrastar la oferta territorial y la demanda turística, y aportar estrategias para canalizar esta demanda de acuerdo con la capacidad de acogida y potencialidades de la oferta del territorio.

General objectives: to contrast the territorial offer and the touristic demand, and to offer strategies for channelling this demand according to the capacity and potential of the territory offer.