Attractiveness of rural areas: development of initial definition

Abstract. There has been a growing interest in assessing the attractiveness of territories, especially rural ones,
from the perspective of stakeholders, such existing exiting rural populations, potential newcomers and new
entrants. As part of the PoliRural project, the aim of the presented research was determined - to create the initial
vision (i.e. definition) of rural attractiveness by considering factors that influence people’s desire to live and
work in rural areas. To that end, a mixed method approach combining qualitative and quantitative techniques
was used. The overall research framework was executed in several sequential steps: brainstorming, literature
review, survey questionnaire, data analysis, and evaluation. In defining rural attractiveness, two different but
interrelated perspectives were considered, one focusing on people, the other on the entire rural ecosystem.
During internal survey of project participants—respondents prioritized definitions by assigning points or scores
on their preferred definition. Accordingly, an initial vision’s definition of rural attractiveness was created based
on the highest assessment score.