Quality marks as an economic consolidation factor for rural tourism

The economic viability of the companies is a more significant gap in rural tourism. The quality standards can be a new instrument to help consolidate rural businesses, because of its positive direct and indirect effects: improve professionalism, increase the size of rural companies, protect the architecture and traditional culture, and facilitate segments of tourists of smaller size but of higher economic value. However, the interest of rural businesspeople for rural quality marks will depend on the economic benefits that they provide, at least to initially support the investment and costs of implementation. The article reviews the literature and its findings on the perceived benefits of quality standards, paying particular attention to rural accommodation. The research develops an empirical work with an extensive database. It contained the economic results obtained by a set of rural hotels in a specific region of Spain. These rural accommodations operate with a public quality standard called "Casonas Asturianas" (Old Asturian Palaces). The results provide evidence about the relationship between the quality rural standard and the economic performance of the hotels. Also, the conclusions suggest the presence of some nuances in the self-selection bias, explicitly referring to high season tariffs.