Creative and Rural Tourism, Public Policies and Land Use Changes: A Multi-Method Approach towards Regional Sustainable Development in Azores Islands

This research work aims to give an answer to three preliminary research questions: (RQ1) Are the land-use changes the footprint of the regional public policies conducted over a territory? (RQ2) Could rural and creative tourism be the catalyst for the regional sustainable development of island territories? (RQ3) Assessing the land-use changes dynamics and trends, is it possible to use new forms of tourism business to develop regional public policies? Through a multi-method approach, this paper examines the possible relationship between land-use changes and new tourism typologies as a potential catalyst for sustainable regional development in island territories, using the Azores Islands and some creative tourism projects as case studies. As some of the results show, a footprint of the regional public policies conducted over a territory can be observed through the land-use changes analysis. In addition rural and creative tourism could catalyze the regional sustainable development of island territories.