Hiking accommodation provision in the mountain areas of Valencia Region, Spain: a tool for combating the depopulation of rural areas

ABSTRACT Rural areas in Spain are currently suffering from a serious problem known as depopulation. One of the strategies to reverse the depopulation process is the rise of sports tourism. The main objective of this research is to analyse the offer of hiking accommodation in order to be able to propose sports products and services adapted to the clients. We intend to text whether the accommodation offer meets the needs and expectations of hikers and, therefore, whether the area is attractive and generates a tourist product with added value. A qualitative methodology was used through interviews. The profiles interviewed are made up of the different interest groups that revolve around sports tourism in both the private and public spheres. A total of 16 semi-structured interviews were carried out, lasting between 40 and 70 min. The results indicate that the different hiking lodgings have been adapting their offer to make it more competitive, as indicated by previous research on attraction factors. However, it could be interesting to combine the efforts of the different accommodations in order to improve the destination. The implications of this study are various: they describe the current situation in terms of sports tourism in the inland area of Castellón, laying the foundations for setting possible short and medium-term objectives. On the other hand, they provide a larger corpus of information on the idiosyncrasy of the area studied, which translates into a transfer of knowledge that can be used by public administrations and by private companies.