With development of the market economy, the views concerning the importance of ethical norms in business activity are developing. Ethical orientation in economics, has been popularized for several decades by e.g. French centre "Economie et Humanisme" 1 , established by a renowned Dominican, L.J. Lebret. Tourism, including rural tourism, represents an economic activity which has its specifi c ethical dimension. Th e goals of this paper are to characterize the basic values that are voluntarily accepted and used in tourism in rural areas in Poland and to identify the ethical norms that guarantee the realization of these values. Th e authors adopted the basic values-goals that should be recommended in rural tourism. Th ey also formulated specifi c professional and ethical norms that support realization of the values, which include: humanity and standards for realizing the principle of humanity; the cultural and material conditions of living in rural areas; economic activity, including tourist activity that improves rural living conditions; innovative attitudes towards modernization and improving the quality of rural tourist services; and values that support the development of sustainable tourism in rural areas. Th e theoretical investigations concerning axiological problems were supplemented with the results obtained from a national-level empirical survey that was conducted in rural areas in Poland.

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The paper presents the concept of sustainable development adopted by the United Nations in 1987, with its foundations contained in the Enlightenment and Kant's philosophies of designing rational social development. It was stressed that successful social development is the responsibility of future generations. Fundamental humanistic, social and natural values were described as those realized as objectives of the concept of sustainable and multifunctional development of rural areas in Poland. The study also emphasized the need to involve older people from the rural environment in the implementation of these concepts in their place of residence. One of the forms of such an activity of seniors is silver economy in the commercial and non-commercial aspects.

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