ANTHROPOLOGICAL ROOTS OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT: A CULINARY TOURISM CASE STUDY IN ARGENTINA

Rural tourism is gaining new fans all the time, especially in those countries that have not been blessed with the natural resources necessary for a beach holiday industry, or that don't have a sufficiently significant cultural heritage to generate large waves of tourists. However the peacefulness of the countryside, the communing with nature and the chance to indulge in some traditional rural activities are not enough for a lot of people. As a result, people are increasingly turning to gastronomy as an important complement of this type of tourism and as a means of promoting rural development by offering traditional cuisine to tourists. This paper sets out a brief description of this phenomenon based on a study conducted in Tomás Jofré, in Argentina, of the risks which a tourist strategy, apparently risk-free and without any negative consequences, can create for a tourist destination.