The Olive Oil Tourism as a Development Factor in Rural Areas

The olive oil production is a socio-economic activity largely extended in the Mediterranean area and which forms the basis of the so-called “Mediterranean Diet”. Therefore, the olive oil, and all the elements related to it, has become a key element for the development of rural areas, also presenting a growing interest, in what concerns to the visit, by travelers. In this paper we present an analysis from the olive oil tourism supply perspective, in the province of Córdoba (Spain), one of the largest areas in the world of olive oil production. The main results show the increasing importance of the olive oil mills related to the tourism and the culture, in order to generate additional income as also for the commercialization of the product itself, the olive oil.