A Preliminary Approach About the Perceptions of Decision Makers versus Entrepreneurs About Rural Tourism Development in the Azores Autonomous Region Rui Alexandre Castanho 1,2,3,4(B ) , Gualter Couto 1 , Pedro Pimentel 1 , Célia Barreto Carvalho 5,6 , Áurea Sousa 7 , and Maria da Graça Batista 1 1 School of Business and Economics and CEEAplA, University of Azores, 9500-321 Ponta Delgada, Portugal acastanho@wsb.edu.pl 2 Faculty of Applied Sciences, WSB University, 41-300 D˛ abrowa Górnicza, Poland 3 CITUR – Madeira – Centre for Tourism Research, Development and Innovation, 9000-082 Funchal-Madeira, Portugal 4 VALORIZA – Research Centre for Endogenous Resource Valorization, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre (IPP), 7300 Portalegre, Portugal 5 Faculty of Social and Human Sciences and CEEAplA, University of Azores, 9500-321 Ponta Delgada, Portugal 6 Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3000-115 Coimbra, Portugal 7 Faculty of Sciences and Technologies and CEEAplA, University of Azores, 9500-321 Ponta Delgada, Portugal Abstract. The current preliminary research aims to assess the Azorean decision- makers’ and entrepreneurs’ opinions about the potential for rural tourism devel- opment in this Ultra-peripheral Region. Consequently, considering these assump- tions, the study used testing tools that enabled assessing the decision-makers’ and entrepreneurs’ opinions of this Portuguese Autonomous Region. In this regard, the study evidenced that a large number of the surveyed entrepreneurs in this research indicated the subsequent causes for the potential development of rural tourism in this Ultra-peripheral Region: (i) landscape; (ii) being a resident/being established in the region; (iii) culture; (iv) prestige of the destination; and (iv) the weather. On the other hand, the most significant number of the surveyed decision-makers believe that the following reasons are the most relevant for the potential develop- ment of rural tourism in the Azores Region: (i) Specificities of the Azores Des- tination in the context of Rural Tourism; (ii) Sociability, traditions, and customs; (iii) Hospitality and security; and (iv) Gastronomy and local products. Keywords: Regional studies · Rural tourism · Sustainable development · Sustainable tourism · Ultra-peripheral territories © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 Á. Rocha et al. (Eds.): ICITS 2022, LNNS 414, pp. 277–285, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96293-7_25