RURAL tourism is the only real form of leisure travel that has not taken a dramatic hit from the pandemic – quite the opposite, in fact, if figures quoted by countryside hotels are anything to go by.
Keen to avoid crowds, more and more residents in Spain have stayed away from airports and beaches this year, meaning international travel plummeted drastically and, on the staycation front, the coast was less of a holiday magnet in July and August.
So, a casa rural, or a guesthouse in the country, was a popular way of socially-distancing, and in the middle of a year that has involved being confined at home, families and friends kept apart, fear of job loss and of loved ones getting seriously ill, or worse, the psychological need to 'get away from it all' has, collectively, been greater.
Again, psychologically, the burning urge to escape one's real life for a few days and de-stress tends to conjure up images of nature, greenery, fresh air, picturesque views, a slower pace of life, home cooking, animals, and a much lesser emphasis on technology, feeling busy, living the high life, and 'being modern'. Given that rural villages or being right out in the sticks can give the sensation of stepping off the express train of 21st-century existence and popping back to a time when life seemed so much less complicated (even if it wasn't), destinations deep in the country have proven to be the ideal 'Covid break' in 2020.
According to at least one booking site, over the two main summer tourism months, rural holidays accounted for 54% of the total – a whole 14 percentage points higher than over the same period in 2019.
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