Environmental Quality and Entrepreneurial Activityin Rural Tourism in Italy

We estimate the relation between environmental quality and services in rural tourism in Italy. We use the averagenumber of firms per region in 2003-07 to indicate entrepreneurial activity. We suggest that heterogeneity amongadministrative regions can be tied to environmental quality. Incorporated farms in rural tourism are relativelymore common in regions with better environmental quality, and command higher average price from betterquality in hospitality. Only 7% of entrepreneurial activity can be attributable to environmental quality. Weconclude that rural tourism activity in Italy is not genuinely tied to environmental quality.