González-Arnedo, Esther AliciaIzquierdo-Gascón, MarioRubio Gil, Ángeles2025-01-182025-01-182022-10-02González-Arnedo, E. A., Izquierdo-Gascon, M., & Rubio Gil, A. (2022). Ecovillages as a Development Model and the case of Api-Tourism in Sustainable Settlements. PASOS Revista De Turismo Y Patrimonio Cultural, 20(5), 1143–1161. https://doi.org/10.25145/j.pasos.2022.20.0771695-7121 (Edición online)2529-959X (Edición impresa)https://hdl.handle.net/10115/58678The growing interest in sustainability has increased studies on ecocentrism and green economy in all its forms. The review of the literature on ecovillages shows the current boom of this topic, which responds to old and new social and environmental concerns, but which would require further updating in terms of their functions and activities, as is the case of beekeeping and api‑tourism, to find a greater resonance in which they could find current youth. As for api‑tourism as a business niche within agritourism, it is evidenced here that it is still to be exploited and worth being analyzed. This study has shown the eleven ecovillages belonging to the RIE, and none of which had or has interest in beekeeping. However, it should be noted that during the realization of this work projects of non‑federated ecovillages and sustainable settlements were found where at least one of their residents is timidly beginning to show their knowledge of beekeeping to the outside world. The role of beekeeping activities presents a hopeful future for humanity, since among the many tourism modalities existing today, it is beekeeping the one that possibly contributes the most to the SDGs, and is of academic interest, following Lockyer and Veteto (2015), the study of ecovillages and sustainable settlements as experimental spaces where both quantitative and qualitative methodologies can be used to demonstrate the socio‑economic and environmental regenerative development of this type of tourism, both locally and globallyThe study on ecovillages is characterized by the heterogeneity of its sources, being of great interest the delimitation of its theoretical and empirical framework for the knowledge of its structure, functions, and its pioneering perspectives together with its future in the light of international policies in sustainability. A methodological triangulation (structural, comparative and hypothetical‑inductive) is used to develop the approach to the concept, evolution, status, and its role in the context of a green, circular, and sustainable economy. In addition, beekeeping as a fundamental activity within “Red Iberica de Ecoaldeas” (RIE) in Spain was examined through the realization of surveys and shown to be non‑existent. Thus, api‑‑tourism is considered as an applicable paradigm for the insertion of regenerative activities that are more in line with current demands and a tourism niche which potentially contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).enAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/EcovillageEnvironmentGreen economyApi ‑tourismSustainable developmentEcoaldeaMedio ambienteEconomía verdeApi‑turismoDesarrollo sostenibleArticle10.25145/j.pasos.2022.20.077info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess