Accommodation businesses as a meanss against population decline: reality or illusion? Extremadura (Spain) as a case-study

Rural towns and villages are facing a continuous population decline which, together with other related problems, has called for different development policies in order to counteract it. Different administrations have chosen to develop the tourist sector-even though in the case of Extremadura these projects did not reach the goals they sought to achieve. Towns under 10,000 inhabitants, where a relatively large number of tourist accommodation businesses have been established, are still losing population despite their potential and tourist-related resources. This implies that the policies to expand tourism have failed, especially because they have focused on enlarging accommodation capacity instead of generating products that meet the demands of customers. This attests to the notion that different policies are necessary in order to stop population decline-rather than simply establishing accommodation businesses or offering unrealistic tourist products that are unlikely to have a noticeable impact on the area object of study.