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. 2019 Dec 4;5(12):e02975. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02975

Introducing olive-oil tourism as a special interest tourism

Juan Ignacio Pulido-Fernández a,∗, Jairo Casado-Montilla b, Isabel Carrillo-Hidalgo c
PMCID: PMC6909090  PMID: 31872132

Abstract

Olive-oil tourism is an emerging tourism typology that is especially developing in the Mediterranean basin, though successful cases also exist in other regions of the world. The main motivation underlying olive-oil tourism demand is the desire to learn about and enjoy the world of olives and olive oil. The objective of this article is to characterise this new tourism typology and identify its main activities. Based on a thorough bibliographical review and an expert panel, we show that this tourism typology corresponds to special interest tourism, and derives from three types of general interest tourism (rural, nature and cultural) with connections to other specific types of tourism. Furthermore, we demonstrate its links to an increasingly broad range of activities and services, thus revealing how complex this type of tourism can be, a feature proper to so-called special interest tourism.

Keywords: Olive-oil tourism, Special interest tourism, General interest tourism, Tourism, Tourism industry, Tourism management, Research and development

Olive-oil tourism, Special interest tourism, General interest tourism, Tourism, Tourism industry; Tourism management; Research and development

1. Introduction

Olive-oil tourism (hereon OOT) is a booming tourism typology. It is found especially in rural areas where olive trees are the predominant crops (mainly in Mediterranean basin countries: Spain, Italy, Greece, Morocco, Turkey, Portugal, although cases of OOT have also been found in countries such as Argentina, Australia, Chile, Japan, the USA or Lebanon). In these areas, for a variety of reasons, oil mills and agri-food companies have decided to diversify their main economic activity and have turned towards tourism (Campón-Cerro et al., 2017; Millán et al., 2015), opening the way to nascent demands of potential tourists interested in acquiring first-hand knowledge of olive oil culture: from olive landscapes to its uses in everyday life, covering all aspects, from the production process to tasting.

OOT is currently emerging (Alonso and Northcote, 2010), so there is scarce literature available and the studies carried out so far, in addition to being highly general and fragmented, are basically descriptive and centre on specific territories. Inconsistencies can be found as to the nature of OOT, the activities it consists of, the typologies that give rise to it, and even its name, which, in some articles, is "oleotourism", preserving the Latin prefix (Millán et al., 2018). This confusion justifies the present study. Conceptual and content aspects should be consolidated as soon as possible so studies may focus on other aspects of great interest and develop the potential of this tourism typology.

The emergent and novel nature of this tourism typology also justifies the methodology chosen in this research: a review of the literature – though scarce and often lacking in quality – and the validation of its findings by an expert panel.

The studies and approaches that have been carried out so far emphasise above all the reasons that lead companies in the sector to diversify their activities towards tourism, as well as the benefits that this tourism typology brings to the area in which it is located (Molina-Moreno et al., 2011). These works have also attempted to outline OOT supply and demand, in some cases comparing them with that of their counterparts in wine tourism (Millán and Pérez, 2014).

A strong consensus was also observed regarding the existence of close links between OOT and rural areas, natural and industrial landscapes and gastronomy (Alonso and Krajsic, 2013; Millán et al., 2010b, Millán et al., 2010a; Ruiz Guerra et al., 2011). These distinctive elements belong to the territories and form an essential backdrop for the mix of activities that, as we will see in this article, are offered within the framework of this tourism typology.

Before delving into the concept of OOT, we intend to understand its nature. We analyse the difference between generic tourism and tourism of general interest (hereon GIT), as well as between specific tourism and tourism of special interest (hereon SIT), as differentiated by Brotherton and Himmetoğlu (1997). In the same way, differences between these concepts and mass tourism as well as tourism market niches are highlighted and delimited, based on respective existing literature.

The ultimate objective of this article is to establish a definitive concept of OOT, based on the differentiation between GIT and SIT, providing the reader with a better understanding of its structure and functioning, as well as the various ways of exploiting resources that can be used to shape OOT. This tourism typology can thus become an instrument to develop rural areas that have few economic diversification alternatives.

2. General interest tourism and special interest tourism

The tourist market has made great strides due to the way society has evolved as well as changes in how people enjoy their free time. As Avila points out (Ávila, 2002: 20), "more and more tourists are fragmenting their leisure time into different slots throughout the year. The tourist offer adapts to these new short and frequent tourist seasons". Therefore, more and more concrete and specific features are demanded by tourists when it comes to spending their available free time.

GIT elements have been traditionally implemented ever since tourism took off in the middle of the 20th century, due to improved means of transport and networks, as well as the arrival of commercial aviation, which made tourism affordable to the middle classes during their holidays.

Tourism is considered of a generic typology when there is a wide range of motivations underlying the fact of travelling to a location other than that of usual residence, and the desire for rest is predominant. These typologies usually include the possibility of accessing several SITs and complementary activities to fill leisure time (Magadán & Rivas, 2015).

From a demand perspective, this implies that GIT addresses tourists’ needs to "rest, enjoy free time, do nothing, feel the mood, etc." (Torres, 2006: 45): tourists clearly generally seek to rest, have fun or disconnect from their usual living and/or work environment.

Once the GIT was established, many authors tried to narrow down and define the tourism typologies it best corresponded to (Epler, 2002; Torres, 2006, UNWTO, 2002, to name just a few). One can speak of GIT when, in accordance with the characteristics described above, the destinations tourists go to offer an extensive complementary offer composed of several SITs. Many contributions have been made today to tourist typologies that fall under the GIT category. They are summarised in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Figure 1

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General Interest Tourism. Source: Elaborated by the authors from UNWTO (2002) and Torres (2006).

On the other hand, our literature review revealed an interest in defining mass tourism. Though the concept had been taken for granted, it currently needs to be further examined and understood. Based on an extensive literature review, Vainikka (2013) determined that there were two main currents in the study of mass tourism: one based on a deterministic discourse, which considers the masses as a homogeneous group, and another current employs a flexible discourse, which circumvents this idea and views masses as a set of heterogeneous groups. Therefore, it is necessary in this article to nuance and clarify from what perspective tourism is being analysed, how we understand mass tourism, how its dynamic nature is dealt with and why one discourse may be more relevant compared to another when both currents coexist.

Following the evolution and rapid development of new technologies, a Fordist stage of tourism seems to have been left behind. We have shifted towards a type of tourism that is currently booming and is characterised by more personalised production, oriented towards catering for the needs of tourists. As noted by Agarwal et al. (2018: 1–2), "the changing nature of such tourism demand has been more generally linked to the alleged shift from Fordism, characterised by mass production and economies of scale, to post-Fordism. The latter, in contrast, is consumption-led, and is based on economies of scope as consumers drive the production process so that their demand for more customized" That is, a shift has taken place from marketing low-medium level tourist products that are supply-oriented (commodities), to a customer orientation with high added-value, complex, specialised and personalised services (López-Sánchez and Pulido-Fernández, 2013).

The concept of mass tourism seems a priori opposed to SIT. However, "there has been a blurring of boundaries between mass tourism SIT, particularly since the latter was originally based on the notion that is was small-scale and primarily involved non-commercialized forms of travel as opposed to mass tourism" (Agarwal et al., 2018: 2). The truth is that, as in the case of mass tourism, we must observe tourists’ motivations very carefully as well as the specific activity or set of services involved, because it is the combination of supply and demand that characterises the type of tourism in question. This specific type of tourism can shift from being consumed by small groups of tourists to being packaged and commercialised on a large scale: it can maintain its concrete activity while being directed to larger demand groups.

Plenty of literature can now be found on the definition of SIT. Trauer (2006) gathered several of these contributions, among them, belonging to (Hall and Weiler, 1992: 5) "SIT occurs when the travellers' motivation and decision-making are primarily determined by a particular special interest with a focus either on activity/ies and/or destination and settings". Previously, Brotherton and Himmetoğlu (1997) had referred to the "tourism continuum", and based on the peculiarities of GIT and SIT, as well as mixed interest tourism (MIT), described the main motivations that guided tourists in their choice of destination. Both the tourist destination's characteristics and tourists' needs, and expectations make up the "tourism continuum" (Carr, 2002: 979). states that " the tourist culture is partially a creation of the sociocultural norms and values that influence behaviour in the leisure environment rather than a discrete phenomenon", referring to cultural tourism; this helps to understand how a SIT can emerge based on tourist motivations existing both where they live and during their trips.

At the same time, references can be found to so-called tourist market niches, a concept that has often been used as a synonym, or another way of referring to SIT. Although the two terms mostly present similarities, they differ in that market niches are more focused on production itself, while SITs are guided in their production process by the specific interests and motivations of consumers (Agarwal et al., 2018).

As an example, activities such as hunting or risky sports are tourist market niches: they pre-exist and are produced in the same way whether they become tourist attractions or not. In contrast, gastronomic routes, routes dedicated to some cultural aspect that motivates the trip and/or the adaptation of activities to make them accessible to tourism (agritourism, language tourism, safari tourism, astro-tourism, etc.) generate SIT around particular needs (Soleimani et al., 2018). In short, this approach to GIT concepts, mass tourism, SIT and tourism market niches give rise to the conceptualisation of OOT, a novel and booming type of tourism with specific features. OOT needs to be understood in view of its future development, together with the elements, resources as well as the activities that shape it and that have aroused the interest of so-called oleo-tourists. As will be seen below, OOT can generally be described as special interest tourism based on three major GITs (rural tourism, nature-based tourism and cultural tourism) that, shares some common features with certain SIT typologies (gastronomic, industrial, ethnographic, landscape, agrotourism, creative, flora observation tourism, wildlife observation, business and health tourism).

3. Methodology

3.1. Literature review process

The methodology used in this research mainly consisted in a bibliographic review based on the model proposed by Webster and Watson (2002). The bibliographic search was conducted across different databases, specifically: Web of Science, Scopus, SciELO and Google Scholar. In general, only scientific articles were used, so reports, articles in dissemination magazines, book chapters not included in these databases (and, therefore, of doubtful scientific quality), etc. were omitted. In order to make the search more accurate, the following keywords were chosen at first: olive oil tourism, rural development, oleotourism (which shows less results as authors point out in the introduction) and rural diversification. Besides, the search of bibliography has been carried out using the Spanish terms for the already mentioned keywords since there are a lot of studies developed in Spain. It is necessary to clarify that some articles have had to be omitted because they only mention olive oil tourism once or twice as a mere part of their composition, without a deeper analysis. All olive oil tourism papers, a total of 39, which are directly related with this emerging tourism typology, have been gathered in this review.

Based on the identification of the most relevant literature, a theoretical framework was developed around the OOT that derived from the identification of the GIT and the SIT, giving shape to this tourism typology. Furthermore, we broke down the range of activities that have been currently undertaken to set up OOT. To define the connection between olive-oil tourism and SIT as well as GIT detected in the literature review, as well as to validate the set of activities that make up an oleo-touristic experience, we used an expert panel who were asked to reach a consensus on different aspects relating to the concept and practice of olive-oil tourism.

3.2. Panel of experts setting

A panel of experts is a group of specialists with professional achievements or scientific publications on a specific topic at the local, regional, national or international levels, who are consulted on the subject under study on which they have a high degree of professional and/or academic experience (Berg, 2001; Davis, 1992; Sancho, 2001). However, Sancho (2001) states that there may be some cases in which experts of higher professional rank or age end up imposing their opinion on others.

To select the experts who participated in this study, as in other works (Pulido Fernández, 2014), we determined the prevailing requisite of their recognition within their professional or institutional setting, in order to obtain results of greater validity and precision.

The development of OOT in areas where olive tree growing predominates, as demonstrated in the literature, led to selecting experts who perform their professional and/or academic functions in the field internationally. The followed criteria to choose the experts has been related to their career skills and knowledge. According to the existence of links between tourism and olive oil culture, a professional relationship with the olive oil sector and the tourism sector have been taken into account. A total of 14 experts were selected to provide their views on the subject, of which 5 came from Spain, 2 from Italy, 2 from Greece, 1 from France, 1 from Portugal, 2 from Australia and 1 from Lebanon. Furthermore, 6 of them are associate professor at universities, 4 are working in the olive oil production sector and the last 4 are working for tour operators in developing new tourism products.

They were given questionnaires in which they were asked to assess on a 1 to 5 Likert scale to what extent they considered the connections between olive-oil tourism and tourist typology identified in the bibliographic review to be accurate as well as which main activities characterised olive tourism, many of which had been identified in the prior literature review.

To process the data obtained, arithmetic mean was used as a measure of concentration. The Pearson Variation Coefficient i.e. the quotient between the typical deviation and the arithmetic mean was used to verify the level of consensus among the experts on their evaluation results.

4. The concept of olive-oil tourism

As indicated above, the existing literature on OOT is still scarce, fragmented, in some cases even repetitive, and highly focused on certain territories and/or specific cases (Arikan-Saltik, 2017). The first step taken in this study was the literature review, and a panel of experts subsequently validated its findings. Table 1 shows the contributions made so far relating to this tourism typology, differentiating between a demand and/or supply approach. It also shows the main connections highlighted in each article between OOT and gastronomy, the industrial aspect, the rural environment, nature, culture, territorial development and/or its conditioning as the local economy's diversifying agent.

Table 1.

Literature review on olive-oil tourism.

Author Perspective
 Main link to olive-oil tourism
Demand Supply Gastronomy Industrial Rural Nature Cultural Territorial development Diversifying agent
Alonso (2010) x x x
Alonso and Northcote (2010) x x x
Millán and Agudo (2010) x x x x x
Millán et al., 2010a, Millán et al., 2010b x x x x
Millán et al. (2010a) x x x x
Quesada et al. (2010) x x
Ruiz Guerra (2010) x x x x x
Millán et al. (2011) x x x x x x
Molina-Moreno et al. (2011) x x x x x
Northcote and Alonso (2011) x x x
Ruiz Guerra et al. (2011) x x x x x
Alonso and Krajsic (2013) x x x x
Murgado (2013) x x x x
de Salvo et al. (2013) x x x
Campón-Cerro et al. (2014) x x x
Millán and Pérez (2014) x x
Millán et al. (2014) x x x x x
Moral-Caudra et al. (2014) x x
Alonso and Krajsic (2015) x x x
Cañero-Morales et al. (2015) x x
Millán et al. (2015) x x x x x x
Morales-Fernández et al. (2015) x x x x x
Hernández-Mogollón et al. (2016) x x x x x x x
López-Guzmán et al. (2016) x x x x x
Arikan-Saltik (2017) x x x x x
Elias and Barbero (2017) x x x x
Moral et al. (2017) x x x x
Orgaz-Agüera et al. (2017) x x x x
López-Guzmán et al. (2017) x x
Campón-Cerro et al. (2017) x x x
Millán et al. (2017) x x x x
Arikan-Saltik and Çeken (2018) x x x
Millán et al. (2018) x x x x x x
Cankul and Ezenel (2018) x x x x
Orgaz-Agüera et al. (2018) x x
Ruiz et al. (2018) x x x x
Tregua et al. (2018) x x x x
Carrillo-Hidalgo et al. (2019) x x x
Hernández-Mogollón et al. (2019) x x x x
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Source: Elaborated by the authors.

Gastronomy is presented as a major element underlying oil tourism activities centred on olive oil. For its part, the industrial component refers to the importance of facilities and oil mills linked to oil culture for the development of OOT.

Links to the rural world and nature highlight the major role of the environment, taking advantage of the main endogenous assets of the territory. Connecting to local culture was another aspect of great interest to the authors, since implementing OOT implies revaluing and conserving the culture belonging to the areas in which the activity takes place.

Finally, in many cases, there was a special interest in OOT's major role in the territorial development of rural areas (Campón-Cerro et al., 2014; Cankul and Ezenel, 2018) and the diversification of economies that are heavily dependent on agriculture. However, some studies also analysed production volumes of oil tons as the main characteristic of the territories in which OOT is developed (Moral-Cuadra et al., 2014).

Almost a decade has passed since the publication of the first articles to approach OOT, a tourism typology that takes place in areas characterised by their strong economic dependence on olive crops. In most cases, the olive tree is the only crop to grow in the area, which has a negative impact on the local economy, due to a chain of occurrences.

Worthy of note among them is the olive sector's strong dependence on EU Common Agricultural Policy subsidies which, being at risk of reduction or restructuring, has led to the introduction of intensive or super-intensive olive tree cultivation models. This practice implies reducing labour costs and increasing the use of fertilisers and phytosanitary products, which causes soil erosion by destroying spontaneous vegetation and the contamination of water resources, as well as biodiversity and trivialisation of water resources (Millán et al., 2015).

This explains why many studies relating to this tourism typology refer to the important role of OOT in diversifying these rural areas’ main economic activity, which allows generating additional income to farmers with low income levels (Alonso, 2010; Campón-Cerro et al., 2017; Millán et al., 2011; Hernández-Mogollón, Di-Clemente, Folgado-Fernández y Campón-Cerro, 2019; Millán, Morales & Pérez, 2010a; Molina-Moreno et al., 2011).

In addition, Millán et al. (2014) highlight that tourism activity in olive-growing regions must complement agriculture, by fostering sustainable rural tourism and gastronomy, the practice of eco-activities, preserving the environment and industrial heritage, which means reducing some deficiencies in rural areas, since, "otherwise, the rural environment could be saturated, when what is desired is to promote its sustainability by generating wealth and long-term employment" (Morales-Fernández et al., 2015: 32).

The diversification of agricultural activities refers to the expansion of basic crop production towards activities that are normally considered complementary, such as the development of tourist activities outside agri-food production (Northcote and Alonso, 2011). Many factors can influence the decision-making prior to the launch of a different activity than that usually performed by an agri-food company. These factors are both internal to growers themselves, some of which have been alluded to by Northcote and Alonso (2011), for example their economic situation and/or the ability to assume new risks. Other factors are external, including access to resources or the proximity of elements that support diversification.

Up to this point, a strong consensus regarding the origin of OOT was found in the literature. In addition, the tourist activity contributes to adding value to olive production and its products, constituting an additional source of income (Alonso and Northcote, 2010) as reflected in farmers’ intentions of implementing diversification strategies that contribute to this value and its commercialisation through tourism (Alonso and Krajsic, 2015).

The literature that exists until now has broadly described the motivations for diversification and the benefits that OOT has for companies and producers of olive oil. In parallel, the literature has highlighted some of the elements that constitute this tourism activity since its beginnings, or the potential that OOT could have in specific cases such as in Spain (Quesada et al., 2010), in Argentina (Elias and Barbero, 2017) and/or in Jaén (Tregua, D'Auria and Marano-Marcolini, 2018).

Traditional rural area products, such as olive oil, represent a potential resource for the local community, since they are at the heart of the culture and the gastronomy of the regions in which it is cultivated. The development and promotion of these products become a development strategy for the area, with strong links to gastronomy (Murgado, 2013; de Salvo et al., 2013).

The gastronomic component of olive-oil tourism has gained momentum as this tourism typology has been implemented. This has even led migrants from other Mediterranean areas to import the practice to other parts of the world in which they have introduced olive grove cultivation (Alonso and Krajsic, 2013). The benefits of olive oil consumption for health (Covas et al., 2006), its organoleptic properties or its pairing with a wide range of dishes are all part of olive oil's appeal. Such is the strong connection between olive-oil tourism activities and gastronomy, that many studies have highlighted the importance of Protected Designations of Origin, Geographical Indicators and gastronomic routes as quality indicators of the regions in which OOT is developed (Hernández-Mogollón et al., 2016; Millán and Agudo, 2010; Millán et al., 2011, 2014; Millán et al., 2017; Millán et al., 2010a, Millán et al., 2010b; Morales-Fernández et al., 2015).

Moreover, OOT has been linked to another type of tourism that began before it was launched: wine tourism, which was established as a tourist product decades ago and revolves around wine's main denominations of origin as well as the gastronomic routes established around it (López-Guzmán et al., 2013). So many similarities can be found between these tourism modalities (the gastronomic component, in many cases the rural environment, the approach to agri-food production or the culture of the regions where these crops are grown) that according to some authors, OOT "has emerged as an area similar to wine tourism practice" (Molina-Moreno et al., 2011: 539). Furthermore, olive-oil tourism models could learn from the long history and years of experience of the wine/tourism alliance (López-Guzmán et al., 2016; de Salvo et al., 2013).

As observed so far, all the authors who have studied OOT have a clear vision of its components. Although they have not provided many definitions, those that do exist mainly emphasise the rural milieu, and that the typology is based on local olive oil culture, lifestyle, landscape and heritage (Campón-Cerro et al., 2017).

OOT activities "are organized around olive oil including: visits to cultivation fields, to oil mills, tasting events, as well as the study of the culture and history of the oil" (Millán et al., 2010a, Millán et al., 2010b: 1), that is to say "a tourist practice motivated by everything relating to olive oil and the resources associated with olive groves, such as land, water, landscape, culture or climate among others" (Cañero-Morales et al., 2015: 137).

These definitions highlight olive oil as the mainstay around which all olive oil activities revolve. Therefore, what attracts people is this agri-food product and the culture around it, as their desire to develop a deeper understanding. Thus, it is a very specific interest that motivates them to travel and engage in a wide range of oleo-touristic activities in their free time, either in contact with nature, in rural areas or simply at a restaurant.

In this context, olive-oil tourism should be considered as a special interest type of tourism. Its production is based on leisure needs manifested by would-be oleo-tourists who wish to know more about this agri-food, and motivations to participate in oleo-touristic activities are fairly diverse. This new type of tourism includes components of three GITs (nature-based tourism, rural tourism and cultural tourism) and, in turn, shares different features with other SITs, such as gastronomic, industrial, ethnographic, landscape, creative, flora observation and fauna, health, business and agro-tourism aspects. Some features of its development also allow describing it as creative (Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Figure 2

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Types of tourism that shape olive-oil tourism. Source: Elaborated by the authors from the validation of the panel of expert.

The direct relationship between OOT and gastronomic tourism was the most analysed phenomenon in the studies carried out so far. According to authors such as Millán and Pérez (2014) as well as Orgaz-Agüera et al. (2018), oil tourism is part of gastronomic tourism.

Furthermore, OOT helps maintain and preserve industrial heritage, by adapting factories, mills and warehouses to tourism, entailing efforts and investment (Millán et al., 2014). Meanwhile, a wide range of important ethnographic museums and interpretation centres are established in areas where olive-oil tourism is developing (Ruiz Guerra, 2010), as well as ethnographic festivals, a strong asset for triggering tourism activity (Ruiz Guerra et al., 2011).

Landscapes in turn provide highly varied settings for tourists to experience OOT. Both the landscape and its flora and fauna allow designing an offer of high environmental quality (Millán et al., 2010a, Millán et al., 2010b).

In addition, these activities help to involve tourists in local life, using the local resources available, strengthening the land's identity, discovery, education and self-realisation and/or reviving, recreating and enhancing the environment's atmosphere (Richards and Marques, 2012). Olive-oil tourism therefore presents distinctive features proper to creative tourism.

Moreover, according to Ruiz Guerra (2010), OOT is an expression of agritourism. The author also considers the interest that olive oil has for health tourism as well as spas and business.

In short, OOT could be defined as a leisure or business trip, requiring at least one overnight stay, and travellers are motivated by a set of activities based on olive oil and the local culture, heritage, landscape and customs that revolve around it. These components, combined, aim at fulfilling the very specific and diverse needs of this booming pastime, which will be met, on site, where the demanded activity is being developed and this will define the level of tourists’ involvement in the production-consumption of this tourism typology.

To further validate the links found in the literature review between OOT and certain GITs and SITs, an expert panel was asked to evaluate this relationship and, if necessary, provide new tourism typologies or discard others that have been related to OOT. For this, experts were asked to rate, using a 1 to 5 Likert scale, to what degree they agreed (1 = totally disagree, 5 = totally agree) with the existence of connections between OOT and SIT identified in the literature review. Some of the given SIT were not validated by the panel of experts, therefore they have not been included here. Results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2.

Valuing the connections of OOT with other specific tourism typologies.

Tourism typologies x‾ r=Sx|x‾|
Gastronomic tourism 4.9 0.01
Industrial tourism 4.8 0.06
Ethnographic tourism 4.5 0.09
Landscape tourism 4.5 0.15
Agritourism 4.2 0.19
Creative tourism 3.9 0.19
Flora observation tourism 4 0.10
Wildlife observation tourism 3.9 0.25
Business tourism 4 0.06
Health tourism 4.2 0.09
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Source: Elaborated by the authors from the validation of the panel of expert.

5. Activities that shape olive-oil tourism

Up to this point, we have reviewed the studies that examined the origin of this nascent tourism typology, the motivations that lead olive oil producers to diversify their main activity and/or the environment OOT has been developing in.

A wide range of resources revolve around OOT, and once they are enhanced and adapted to tourist activity, they constitute a great attraction for potential tourists. In addition, it is possible to carry out these activities in various environments, taking advantage of many olive grove landscape resources, together with the many resources proper to olive oil culture (Ruiz et al., 2018).

Although, until now, the authors reviewed have not produced full descriptions of the activities developed by OOT related businesses, in some cases, these activities were specified, after analysing a specific region and its denominations of origin (Millán et al., 2015). Therefore, in the following sections we describe which main activities currently make up OOT.

Taking into account the rural and natural environment in which this typology is developed, the olive oil culture, the resources that this agri-food product has, and the interest that ever more tourists are showing in learning about this type of food, companies are launching products, services and activities mainly designed to introduce tourists, in the most authentic way possible, to the world of olive oil.

Guided tours of the facilities in which olives are processed, i.e. oil mills, are one of the services offered to tourists, where the whole process, from olive tree harvesting to olive oil bottling is explained, illustrating the benefits of such procedures and their avoidance of the use of chemical agents.

In the same vein, visits are being organised to old factories, which have been restored, embellished, and which are today converted into museums and/or interpretation centres in which the old farming tools and machinery used in past eras are preserved.

These two basic activities correspond essentially to the concept of industrial tourism, which can be of two types, depending on the centres being visited. As (Pardo, 2004: 29) points out, "the first is manufacturing or production type industrial tourism. It consists in visiting active industries and showing how a certain product is manufactured. They address basically technical interests in observing the machinery being used. The second is industrial tourism of a patrimonial or historical type. In this case, visits focus on abandoned factories that are converted into museums, or some artistic or interpretive centre".

On the other hand, guided tours of olive groves themselves introduce tourists to the distinctive landscapes of areas where olive tree cultivation predominates. These types of visits and routes can be offered throughout the year, but during the olive harvest season they gain an added value, allowing tourists to get closer and even participate in the harvest. This gives OOT its seasonality characteristic, and the months of October, November and December correspond to the period oil tourists travel to oil mills (Millán et al., 2010a, Millán et al., 2010b). In addition, in the case of southern Spain, efforts have been under way to obtain UNESCO's recognition of olive groves as world heritage cultural landscape (Paisajes del Olivar de Andalucía, 2018)1. In the field of tourism, a landscape is a resource that is strongly linked to a region and its culture (Nogué i Font, 1989). This environment also enables contemplating various kinds of scenery (wild olive, mountain olive, pasture olive, intensive crops, etc.), as well as following routes mainly designed to discover and observe local fauna.

OOT's gastronomic component seems to be one of the most powerful when implementing its related business models. Olive oil is an essential ingredient in the Mediterranean diet, it is routinely consumed by the inhabitants of these regions, who are known for high living standards based on their diet (Willet et al., 1995).

Tasting events are also offered to visitors, as a complement to their visit of the facilities. These tasting sessions focus on tourist interests. The activities include discovering the organoleptic properties of olive oil, differentiating young oils from mature ones and identifying flavours and scents that reveal the product's good or bad state.

Olive oil tasting also represents a didactic resource designed for professionals who wish to broaden their knowledge. In this case, these tasting sessions are more complex and advanced, aimed at tourists with professional motivations.

The tasting of olive oil, accompanied by a typical local product of the area in which the agri-food production is located, consists in introducing tourists to the local gastronomy, highlighting the characteristics of the olive oil used and explaining which products best accompany it. Olive oil pairing set menus constitute the ultimate culinary experience.

The consumption of dishes based on olive oil, from starters to dessert, shows the many ways in which olive oil can be used. This product's cuisine potential also leads to the development of gastronomic routes.

Apart from that, the combination of typical local products on these routes and activities "represent a potential resource for the local community and, around them, associative tendencies are built along with collective development projects" (de Salvo et al., 2013: 24).

Fairs and events have been set up around the gastronomic routes and typical local products which at first failed to attract tourists and took place as simple additional local events. These fairs are based on the first oil extractions or the end of the olive harvest, together with the exhibition and sale of the oil itself, as well as typical products and handicrafts. With the growth of OOT, these fairs and events are attracting more and more oleo-tourists.

This expansion, together with olive oil's health benefits, its cuisine pairing, the different ways in which it can be consumed and the multiple utilities that it presents, have given rise to the consolidation of a culture by creating an optimum product in terms of qualities, taste, smell and touch. In this way, shops specialising in extra virgin olive oils have emerged. These Oleotecas dispose of a large variety of the best oils as well as by-products; they constitute a selling point for many visitors motivated by olive-oil tourism. The shops are located both in the oil mills themselves and in urban centres in olive oil production areas.

Rural accommodation in this tourist segment is based on the reuse and restoration of infrastructure that was once used to house day labourers who tilled the land throughout the harvest season. This type of infrastructure has a big potential for OOT, since machinery and tools have usually been kept as decorative elements and/or explanatory elements that describe what life was like. Taking advantage of olive oil properties for skin care, products have made their way to relaxation centres and spas that use olive oil for various treatments, including massages and peeling.

The mix of activities that make up OOT means that providers and tourists can combine them to their liking. In fact, the uses of olive oil in daily life explain why courses and workshops are offered to tourists who wish to learn a little more about this food fat. Allowing tourists to make olive oil with their own hands or to create soap from the oil are some of the options found in the olive oil market. Participating in cuisine workshops to learn about the uses of olive oil is also beginning to be a selling point for tourists who wish to experience the culture of olive oil more closely. All these activities show how OOT is included in creative tourism.

Taking part in this emerging tourism typology not only entails acquiring a product and consuming it, but it also requires, in many cases, a high level of involvement, thus illustrating the conceptualisation of tourism as a point of union between the production and consumption phases (Ateljevic, 2000).

In short, this type of tourism has a great potential to reinvent itself and develop new activities, addressing increasingly diverse demands based on ever more specific needs, making it ideal to adapt to the processes of tourism micro-segmentation.

We identified the activities that OOT can offer tourists in the areas where it is developed, based on a thorough bibliographic review. In order to validate these activities, we asked a panel of experts to assess to what extent they considered (1 = totally disagree; 5 = totally agree) that these activities could be considered as part of this specific tourism, taking into account that many of the proposed activities already responded to a specific tourism typology, prior to OOT. In this case, all activated proposed were validated as part of OOT. Results are shown in Table 3.

Table 3.

Activities that shape the offer of olive-oil tourism.

Activities that shape the offer of olive-oil tourism x‾ r=Sx|x‾|
Guided visits to current oil mills 5 0
Guided visits to old restored oil mills 4.8 0.07
Guided olive grove tours 4.7 0.04
Participation in the olive harvest 4.8 0.05
Contemplation and understanding of the landscape and flora 4.1 0.15
Contemplation and understanding of fauna 3.9 0.18
Amateur Olive oil tasting (differentiate young oils from mature oils, etc.) 4.9 0.02
Professional olive oil tasting 4.6 0.10
Tasting of olive oils with typical local products 4.7 0.15
Set menus paired with olive oil 4.2 0.20
Local olive oil fairs 4.1 0.06
Professional olive oil events 4.2 0.17
Farmhouse accommodation and typical infrastructure suitable for tourism 4 0.21
Health, beauty and relaxation treatments in spas with olive oil 4.1 0.08
Elaboration of olive oil by tourists 4.3 0.11
Elaboration of soap from olive oil by tourists 4.1 0.19
Cuisine workshops and workshops in which daily uses of olive oil are learned 4.4 0.06
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Source: Elaborated by the authors from the validation of the panel of expert.

6. Conclusions

The nature of tourism typologies and segments is determined by both ends of tourism's production-consumption system, i.e. supply and demand. Trends in tourist demands have clearly been changing over the years. They have become increasingly demanding and focused on specific interests, derived from very specific and personal motivations. Adjusting to this demand implies a change in the way the offer has been adjusting. It is now necessary to adapt to these motivations and interests, shifting from production which is centred on the product to production that is directed by the consumer.

OOT has not only emerged as a business diversification strategy for oil companies that, for a variety of reasons, consider generating alternative means of income; it has also appeared to cover an incipient demand and interest in learning about olive oil culture as well as demands to enjoy the resources and typical products of regions characterised by large scale olive cultivation. Moreover, providers may wish to use OOT to bring their brands closer to potential consumers of their olive oil, increasing sales or improving the company's corporate image.

Furthermore, the creation of gastronomic routes, which take advantage of Protected Designations of Origin and the Geographical Indicators of olive oil, add value to OOT, as they gather different resources and services to create new tourist products. These strategies are still being developed and they require the collaboration of the actors established in these territories. Therefore, this tourist typology is configured as a SIT that adapts to new demand trends, offering a wide range of activities that fully immerse tourists into the culture of olive oil. From visiting mills to enjoying a spa treatment, among a wide range of activities, this new tourism typology is gaining popularity among tourists who look for new experiences.

Among the main limitations that have been found in this work, worthy of note is the lack of studies on OOT and its characterisation. This paucity had an impact on the contents of this study; this literature could have been much more extensive.

In terms of future research, we suggest that studies be carried out on cases of successful olive-oil tourism, thus providing a more concrete characterisation of oleo-tourism offers. It would thus also enable observing, where applicable, the processes of creation and distribution of oleo-touristic products, as well as relationships and collaboration agreements between the different stakeholders, when there are any. In addition, it would be possible to take advantage of existing demand in these success cases to obtain a more accurate characterisation that would underpin the first approaches and field work to be carried out in view of improving the studies to date. Specifically, this approach should assess whether oil mills really diversify their main activity to obtain a second source of income, or whether it is to boost their brand and improve their image.

A particularly interesting future research pathway though, in line with that suggested by Orgaz-Agüera et al. (2018), would consist in generating a research agenda that would allow identifying and organising OOT's main topics of interest, in order to consolidate this typology and ensure its development in the areas that have the potential for it.

Declarations

Author contribution statement

Juan Ignacio Pulido-Fernández: Conceived and designed the experiments; Analyzed and interpreted the data; Contributed reagents, materials, analysis tools or data.

Jairo Casado-Montilla: Performed the experiments; Analyzed and interpreted the data; Wrote the paper.

Isabel Carrillo-Hidalgo: Performed the experiments; Wrote the paper.

Funding statement

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Competing interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

No additional information is available for this paper.

Footnotes

1

http://www.paisajesdelolivar.es/(Accessed: 26/06/19).

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