30. Popularizing of rural tourism products through demonstration centers

Author: Ivan Kilimperov, Ivanka Lulcheva

DOI: n/a

Resume

Alternative forms of tourism have appeared in the late 20th century and become popular, including rural tourism. The combination of authentic nature, organic agriculture and stock-farming with rural tourism will undoubtedly be a successful alternative for the rural areas where it is implemented. However, often the provided rural tourism product in Bulgaria recedes from the philosophy of rural and agricultural tourism. The reasons often are lack of funds, as well as misunderstanding of the rural tourism product. On this basis – there is a wrong user understanding of the nature of the offered services. Therefore, we believe it is highly necessary to create integrated demonstration centers of rural and agricultural tourism.
In this connection, the objective of this article is to reveal the role of rural tourism demonstration centers for promoting rural tourism products in the following areas: training of students; demonstrations of the authentic product to owners of rural tourism sites; expounding campaigns to potential users of rural tourism products. Subsequently, the product demonstrated in the center can be used as a normative model of rural tourism in the relevant region.