Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development 2024, 8(10), 6640. https://doi.org/10.24294/jipd.v8i10.6640 1 Article Rural tourism and its impact on economic development—Case study Kosovo Valon Shkodra 1 , Jehona Shkodra 2,* 1 Department of Ethnology, Institute of Albanlogy, Prishtina 10000, Kosovo 2 Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary, University of Pristina, Pristina 10000, Kosovo * Corresponding author: Jehona Shkodra, jehona.shkodra@uni-pr.edu Abstract: Most researchers have recognized the importance of tourism for economic growth and have concluded that the growth of tourism can also affect the economic and socio-cultural development of society. Our study proves that this relationship can exist, as there is a very strong relationship between tourism and economic development, especially in GDP, which challenges the concept of tourism as an engine of economic development for developing countries such as Kosovo. Our results show that the relationship between GDP growth and tourism development has a bilateral and positive long-term causality. But the low level of tourism development in Kosovo during the years of the study (2010–2022), analyzed according to the Robuts model, shows that in our country during these 12 years the increase in GDP has influenced the development of tourism and not vice versa. Keywords: rural tourism; economic development; GDP; Kosovo; Robuts model 1. Introduction Tourism plays a very important role for transition countries such as Kosovo in creating, increasing and developing economic development (Shkodra et al., 2011). In recent decades, most researchers have argued that tourism can be considered as a tool for economic development in many regions of the world (Alcaláet al., 2024; Adedoyin et al., 2022; Brida and Segarra, 2020; Calero and Turner, 2020; Eyuboglu and Eyuboglu, 2019; Pulido and Cárdenas, 2021; Tang, 2021; Watson and Deller, 2022). Moreover, many contributions from the economic literature recognize the potential of tourism in this sense. In in recent years, however, a critical line of research has emerged that addresses the relationship between these two dimensions, as the growth of tourism in some countries has not only failed to improve socioeconomic conditions, but has actually contributed to a decline in the level of prosperity in that society, as significant costs have been incurred. Thus, there are two opposing points of view regarding the conception of tourism as an instrument for socioeconomic progress. Nevertheless, we must admit that there are always two sides to the coin. In other words, we can say that tourism is not a magic and automatic solution for all countries that want to increase their level of prosperity, but it is also not true that tourism is not capable of becoming an instrument for progress. In fact, tourism is an effective instrument of progress in many areas that expect a large number of visitors, although it is certainly an economic activity that has experienced great limitations in the development of this function in some countries. It can therefore be said that tourism is an “opportunity” that can transform a certain area into a country with a good quality of life and a high standard of living. In addition to creating jobs, tourism also plays an important role in preserving the CITATION Shkodra V, Shkodra J. (2024). Rural tourism and its impact on economic development—Case study Kosovo. Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development. 8(10): 6640. https://doi.org/10.24294/jipd.v8i10.6640 ARTICLE INFO Received: 24 May 2024 Accepted: 17 June 2024 Available online: 24 September 2024 COPYRIGHT Copyright © 2024 by author(s). Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development is published by EnPress Publisher, LLC. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/