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1164 | 592 | Rural, and second home tourism: is it a (second) chance for rural development or catalysator of tourism gentrification instead? | Kyra TOMAY, PhD – Gusztáv NEMES, PhD


Rural tourism has become a fast-growing industry in recent decades. This development direction is essentially small-scale, relying on local resources, while bringing economic revitalisation and life to depopulated villages, thus it has been recognised and actively applied by rural policies as a panacea for territorial development and solving rural problems. In some regions, such as Toscana and Provence, rural tourism has converted whole areas into small economic miracles

. However, our research shows that the local consequences of the ‘tourism industry’, even for (economically) successful localities, raise a number of economic, social and environmental dilemmas, and dangers too. COVID-19 increased the demand for green areas and private spaces, and many urban dwellers ‘escaped’ to rural areas (especially to their second homes) during the lockdowns. The steady flow of second-home owners into rural areas, however, posed a significant challenge to local infrastructures and the maintenance of public services for local rural communities._x000D_
Our presentation discusses the role of rural tourism in the gentrification of the countryside, its successes, and dilemmas. Aiming a deeper understanding of the processes in the framework of two interlinked research more than 150 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with key actors, newcomers, locals, tourists, and visitors between 2019-2023 in three different territories of Hungary. In the presentation we will examine the following questions: What are the consequences of the urban upper and middle-class invasion for local society, the economy, culture, and the environment? What was the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the existing processes: does it modified only temporarily the preferences and motivations, or does it reinforced the already steady trend of rural gentrification or new challenges and problems occurred as a consequence? _x000D_

Kyra TOMAY, PhD – Gusztáv NEMES, PhD
Department of Sociology, University of Pécs, Hungary ; Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Budapest, Hungary


 
ID Abstract: 592