Agro Tourism as Public Good in Rural Areas: A Case Study

Abstract

1. Introduction Multifunctionality of agriculture is already noticed in the past and the scale of its occurrence is characterized by the utilization of labour resources and physical capital on farms and the scale of non-agricultural employment. In the Polish scientific literature there is a discussion of the multifunctionality of the country and the rural areas (multifunctionality of rural areas), which consists of rural economic diversification and thus increasing employment opportunities in non-agricultural activities in rural areas (Wilkin, 2008). According to the definition of pure public goods which are delivered to all citizens in the area without being able to exclude anyone from consumption and the marginal cost of supplying those goods is zero. In terms of tourist visiting the region of agro-tourism services can be a public good or club, depending on whether it is possible to exclude anyone from consumption. They can also be good in a club or private, depending on whether these goods are competitive. From the perspective of the inhabitants of the region carry out the tasks of a municipality within the rural tourism can be regarded as providing a pure public good. The premise of the present paper is the multifunctional development of the current issues of agriculture which is to include reinforcing elements increasing rural tourism values by enriching the attractiveness of the landscape and tourism development. Noticeable is the lack of definition in the literature that treated rural tourism as a public good provided by local or central government. Under the law the task of municipalities is to conduct and financing of tourism policy. Selection of paper topic and related issues has been conditioned by the need to supplement, to systematize and update knowledge of the relevant aspects and conditions for development of multifunctional agriculture (especially tourism), taking into an account the characteristics of natural, social and economic environment for local and regional levels. Against the background of the study there will be attempt to answer the following questions: * Whether the provision of public goods by agro tourism affects its profitability? * Whether agro-tourism services have an impact on the profitability of farms or if only by a purely market-based revenues, or through transfers from public funds? The development of tourism in rural areas is possible. More than half of rural communities meet the criteria for recreational space and has favourable conditions for development of tourism. However, it is noted that there are significant barriers concerning human capital. They influence the decision to be taken in shaping changes in rural areas and do not allow full use of the existing possibilities. 2. Material and research methods The research on the evaluation of agro tourism as a public good was carried out in the Western Pomerania communities. The questionnaire method was used to collect data. The source materials on the opinion of owners of agro tourism farms were the result of research carried out in 2011. The research involved 40 farm owners. In order to identify following questions: (a) whether the provision of public goods by agro tourism affects its profitability? (b) whether agro tourism services have an impact on the profitability of farms or if only by a purely market-based revenues, or through transfers from public funds? The [chi square] test of independence, which allows to determine the statistical significance of the relationship between both measurable and non-measurable variables, was used. The test involves comparing the number of responses received in a number of researches that can be expected under the assumption that there are no relationships between the analysed variables. The values of [chi square] and degrees of freedom (df) are working and are generally not assessed. The interpretation covers primarily the level of probability (p), on the basis of which the existence or lack of dependence are predicated. …