El potencial del turismo cinegético en los cotos adehesados de Extremadura

Abstract

Hunting is a widespread activity in Extremadura, affecting more than 80% of the total regional surface. This practice has become, at present, a major productive activity that generates wealth and employment in rural areas, characterized by population loss, aging and poor economic diversification. In the particular case of Extremadura, a large part of the hunting lands are located in the dehesa, a unique type of ecosystem in the world from which agricultural, livestock, forestry and hunting uses are obtained. In these areas, agrotourism is shown as a complement to agricultural income. In this sense, hunting is an agrotourism resource from which income is obtained. For this reason, this article has analysed the potential of dehesa areas for the development of hunting tourism through the application of geostatistics. This technique has made it possible to obtain very important results, among which are the following: to determine those areas with the greatest potential for the development of this type of tourism, to identify different groups with specific characteristics with respect to the predominance of game species, to represent the presence of tourist places and restaurants near the hunting reserves and, finally, to show the presence of tourist attractions in the study area.