Kaimo turizmo paslaugų plėtros galimybės : Marijampolės apskrities atvejis

Abstract

Rural tourism is a growing and evolving process related to the natural, cultural, social and economic resources for business development. The satisfaction of tourists’ needs and expectations by offering wider range of services encourages customer loyalty and attract new customers, strengthen competitive positions. One of the main problems for rural homesteads owners is holiday service development. This problem is the lack of attention, not being used to the environmental conditions and potential opportunities. The aim – the analysis of rural tourism activities in Marijampole county and offer of rural tourism development measures and policies. In order to assess the needs of holidaymakers and farms operating characteristics, from December 2012 till February, 2013 were conducted two questionnaire surveys. One was for the tourists’ needs clarification, the other – for disclosure of rural tourism specific activities and variety of services in Marijampole county to identify possibilities for performance improvement. Based on data were provided rural tourism development guidelines for the scheme and alternatives. Marijampole rural tourism services missing complexity – conference rooms, good food. There is also a lack of homesteads that could accommodate a large number of vacationers. Service offerings insufficient: tourists need more entertainment, but not much Marijampole county homesteads could offer that. Near homesteads are just few rides, swings, insufficient good accommodation conditions. Almost all Marijampole rural tourism homesteads located near rivers or other bodies of water, often near or next to the homestead is a forest. Marijampole county rural tourism results in recent years significantly decreased, so in order to properly evaluate Marijampole county rural tourism activities, authors have been carried out a questionnaire survey. In this survey, the rural tourism activity was measured in two positions: customers and homesteads owners. Homesteads customer survey involved 204 respondents from Marijampole county who use or benefit rural tourism services. Farm owners surveyed attended by 22 entrepreneurs, almost all of rural tourism farmsteads in county. The results of the surveys showed that Marijampole county rural tourism owners and customer satisfaction for rural tourism development are largely the same. Both sides agree that the service offers only partially satisfy the expectations of clients, and range of services provided should be improved and expanded. Therefore, in light of the results obtained were performed Marijampole county rural tourism development evaluation and the establishment of the development scheme. The main purpose of this scheme is to target rural tourism owners in the right direction of developing tourism activities. Based on the survey results, there were identified two rural tourism trends – entertainment and service diversification and specialization of homestead. The first direction is also divided into active recreation and cooperation. Active recreation includes water activities, orienteering, winter sports, and non-traditional sports. Cooperation column shows how partners can help attract tourists to rural tourism. These items help to increase the flow of tourists in the region, as well as contribute to the development of rural tourism marketing. Homesteads strengthening of specialization specify what measures should Marijampole county rural tourism to expand business realities. These are ethnographic items and traditional crafts, culinary heritage products and spa services. According to Marijampole county rural tourism development guidelines scheme, authors developed potential development options that were grouped according to several criteria. These criteria are homestead geographic location, specialization, water body type and seasonality.