issue which are highly gendered in the rural enterprise and its socio-economic context
and which represent an important element for a social science research agenda.
During a recent international conference at SAC (the Scottish Agricultural College)
Archincruive, (9th-12th September 1998) about "Rural Tourism Management: Sustain-
able Options", explicitly dedicated to assisting the formulation of a rural tourism re-
search agenda, a wide range of research approaches to rural tourism and question of
sustainability was presented by a relatively young, global community of researchers. Ac-
cording with this Agenda for Rural Tourism Research, rural tourism needs to be embed-
ded within local and global economic, social and political linkages.
Bake linkages with the local and regional economy, whether the stimulation of organic
food production, the raising of wine quality or the enhancement of craft production, may
be essential for the successful embedding of a rural tourism enterprise within an appro-
priate economic context, whereby tourism development can complement and enhance
existing activities.
Naturally, there are positive and negative externalities of rural tourism and recreation ac-
tivity. Rural recreation and tourism often acts as the interface between the rural and the
urban; the context may be rural, but the market is usually predominantly urban; hosts
may be recent ex-urban arrivals, differentiated from their fellows rural dwellers by their
values, income and lifestyles. The traditional rural dwellers often are losing their identity
and/or are being marginalised in national decision making processes which are perceived
to be increasingly urban based and oriented. The rural second home owners may be oth-
erwise urban based, and there is in extension the urban to rural migration. Then a com-
parative cross-cultural analytical framework is need.
The tourism sustainability consists essentially to equate the aspirations and needs of both
visitors and the local community.
It is essential for local populations' interests to have a vested interest in the sustainability
of developments in order that future generations may benefit from the heritage trails, for
example. Yet models of best practice which can be applied cross-culturally are still rela-
tively few.
3. The project hypothesis
The two theses above-discussed converge in the project hypothesis of integrated rural
routes, having the aim of making compatible and reconcilable two requirements that are
only apparently in conflict:
a) the protection of the ever larger and less compromised territorial resources of the
area, maintaining their role in agricultural production;
b) satisfaction of the ever increasing demand for free space and contact not only with
nature, but also with the historic-cultural and ethno-anthropological aspects, which Et-
nean rural areas are particularly rich in.
The objectives of the project hypothesis, listed in the figure, fully integrate the two de-
parture theses and reconcile the two requirements.
The integration of the itineraries with accommodation facilities highlights their link with
the tourist-reception structure of the Etna Park, envisioned in the C zones, and with de-
parture points for excursions envisioned in the agricultural areas included in the B zones
(see Fig. 3). In this way integration between the park's internal and external rural areas is
achieved, which can make the park an emerging node in a continuous system of devel-
opment of the economy of the entire northeastern area.