Generating public and private benefits through understanding what drives different types of agritourism

Abstract

The capacity of agritourism to generate private economic benefits for farmers has been established in a range of international contexts. We also find that agritourism in its predominant form is a financially important opportunity for diversifying farmers in Scotland. However, by exploring motivations associated with the supply and demand of different ‘types’ of agritourism, two additional niche markets that incorporate direct interaction between visitors and agriculture have been identified, which may have significant implications in the context of future policy and practice. It is proposed that these types of agritourism have significant potential to generate public as well as private benefits; including increased public awareness of food and farming, promotion and sale of locally produced farm foods, and through supporting the implementation of agri-environmental and conservation measures. We also discuss the importance of underpinning agritourism studies with a solid conceptual foundation, which not only provides for greater understanding of the products and services being studied, but also provides for greater comparability between agritourism studies and allows the research to be positioned in the context of the agritourism literature as a whole.