Abstract

As from the second industrial revolution, rural communities have been affected by a continuous social and economic decline. The traditional economic development paradigms moved people and investments towards the industrialized metropolitan areas causing depopulation of rural areas and loss of their cultural heritages. This development model became, with time, unsustainable from the social, cultural and economic point of view. Modern patterns of rural development highlight that a rational and planned exploitation of agricultural resources together with the valorization of cultural and naturalistic heritage of rural areas are the right leverages to assure sustainable growth. In this work we analyze the potentials of Agritourism as a means of sustainable development for rural areas. To reach this aim, we present some findings of an explorative survey carried out in the Calabria region, Italy, during 2012 on a sample of 52 farms offering agritourism activities. After analyzing the extent of the agritourism phenomena in the region, the survey aims to evaluate if agritourism can support sustainable development of a rural community becoming the hub of an “agritourism rural network”.