The State's Role and the Relevance of a Strategical Development Plan in Rural Tourism : the Island of Madeira's Case Study

In this article we will describe the government’s role in the development of rural tourism from a global perspective, while also addressing some key elements of the current implementation status set by government policies concerning the development of rural areas which have stimulated the increase in diversity of economic activities, resulting in an improvement of the living conditions for the rural community. In this context, rural tourism was considered an activity with the potential to grow the economy, create employment and retain the rural population, thus addressing the recent economic and social changes, while also supporting the growth of these rural areas meeting the new needs and social ambitions. In Madeira Island, the State involvement in the development of rural tourism has played a decisive role in three predominant fronts: in formulating and executing in an orderly manner the regional and national policies; in creating tourist areas, but also regulating and managing them. On the other hand, there is still a long way to go, therefore this article has another purpose: to demonstrate the relevance of elaborating a Strategic Development Plan for Rural Tourism in Madeira Island, given the lack of specific orientations for this type of tourism. In the pursuit of our goals we used the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods in the absence of studies of this nature on the island of Madeira, such as the launch of semi-structured interviews, field work and bibliographical and documentary research. The first objective was to identify the State’s role in the development of rural tourism on a regional and national level and the second, to demonstrate the relevance of the release of the Strategic Development Plan for Rural Tourism in Madeira.