Disentangling the relationship between rurality and tourism from a peripheral rural area of Europe

To achieve a more complex understanding of the relationships between tourism and rurality, we need to deeper explore the extent to which tourism is part of the countryside. To do this, it is not enough to focus on how tourism constructs rurality, but rather on how the rural world appropriates tourism and makes it a defining element of rurality. This article illustrates the opportunity of this analytical perspective through an ethnographic case study in Andalusia (Spain) that helps us understand how and why tourism becomes an inherent element of rurality in peripheral rural areas of Europe. • We do not fully understand the relationship between tourism and rurality. • It is necessary to go beyond the touristic construction of the rural. • The rural world appropriates tourism and makes it a defining element of rurality. • Tourism is currently a structural component of rurality.