From island mass tourism to rural tourism In Madeira: Is there a place for a re-definition of islands？ image?

it is now well acknowledged that the competitive edge of islands′ mature tourist destinations relies on the development of new niche markets such as the rural tourism sector. further, alternative market segments such as the eco-tourism and the cultural tourism have been targeted by most destinations management organisations on islands. rural tourism is a very recent but growing market niche in peripheral areas offering mass tourism products. for that reason the aim of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the image of this emerging industry here in madeira based on a sample of 150 visitors. multivariate descriptive analysis is applied to ′built-up′ the image of the rural tourism according to socioeconomic, travel-related features, and cognitive and emotional factors as it is usual in the destination image literature. this paper fills a void in the literature concerning the rural tourism sector as the factors attracting tourists to the emerging rural tourism industry in madeira and policy recommendations put forward.