El medio rural de la Isla de La GomeraDe la función agraria a la contemplación turística

Laburpena

With the present communication we intend to explain the new func- tionality gained by the rural environment on the island of La Gomera. To achieve that, we use a methodology based on the description of the production model change that took place on the island and its effects on the agrarian areas. The field work -the study of the main instruments of town and country planning carried out on the island and the bibliographic analysis- has allowed us to develop an explanation that clarifies such process, focusing on the role played by the tourism activity as the agent of change toward the restructuring of an island rural environment into a mere landscape setting, thus losing its traditional and essen- tial productive nature. Thus, the territorial heritage from its agrarian past has turned into a group of museum elements offered as tourism resources to the thousands of visitors that stay on the coast or come from Tenerife.