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Introduction
According to studies, tourism is one of the sectors that contributes most to the development of a country, which facilitates economic recovery in countries with low economic development or political conflicts (Díaz and Zielinski, 2022; McAreavey and McDonagh, 2011; Novelli et al., 2012; Winter, 2007), however, studies also describe the difficulties that arise when trying to achieve sustainable development through tourism, due to social problems, poor economic distribution and poor management of institutions in the sector. Sustainable tourism is fully aware of the current and future impacts generated by the sector; in addition to guidelines that apply to all forms and types of tourism that exist, these guidelines present principles of sustainability, which refer to environmental, economic, and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development (United Nations [UN], 2017). Sustainable development in tourism seeks to establish an appropriate balance between the use and preservation of environmental resources, biodiversity, and the human ecosystem, thus ensuring its long-term sustainability (López-Guzmán et al., 2019; Navarrete, 2023).
In turn, rural tourism, which tends to be experiential, sustainable, and personalised, has a management model where local people, community organisations, and government authorities actively participate; from an economic perspective, rural tourism can increase the income of the villagers, create new business and employment opportunities for the surrounding community of the rural area (Lee and Chang, 2008), from a social perspective it allows preserving and promoting culture, which becomes an important attraction of the locality. Ibanescu et al. (2018) point out in research conducted in a rural area in Romania, that tourism can contribute to the sustainable growth of rural areas, and this is confirmed by Teodoro et al. (2017) when mentioning that rural tourism is considered a rural development strategy, as it is a programme that directly affects by its many impacts on the local community. Therefore, it follows that rural tourism is an opportunity to properly manage the natural resources one has (Lee and Jan, 2019).
Communities play a crucial role in the tourism management of their territories, organising collective action and contributing to the configuration of tourism products, as they own the local resources, history, and culture (Guo et al., 2018). These communities, defined by their geographical area, specific population, and shared values, are essential in rural tourism, as their...