Characteristics of women tourist entrepreneurs in the rural environment of the region of Murcia

Abstract

It is a proven fact that rural women, like the environment in which they live, have undergone a great transformation in recent decades. At present, a rural woman with a high educational level is observed, never reached, and increasingly, with more assiduity, occupying positions of responsibility that were previously forbidden. The emergence of alternative economic activities to agriculture, such as rural tourism, has led to the arise of entrepreneurial movements headed by entrepreneurs who have broken their traditional role as an invisible worker. In order to contribute to the knowledge of these changes in the rural world, especially in the Region of Murcia, and in the role that woman plays in the promotion of rural tourism, it is proposed this research that investigates the characteristics of the entrepreneur and the company tourist that she starts up. Specifically, through the methodology of the case study, characteristics and motivations have been identified that encourage eight rural women to undertake a tourist activity in the rural environment, highlighting among their results that the entrepreneur of the tourism sector in the rural environment is a woman with a high level of training, annually updated that, in addition, has work experience, she is also innovative, risky and determined to take advantage of the moment and that with the economic and cultural resources which she has, starts a business activity for which she bets at all times, investing in it over the years and with ambitious future expectations.