Contributions to the Tourism Research Handbook: Agritourism and Destination Resilience

In the chapter on agrotourism, Thomas Streifeneder highlights the importance of farm vacations (in Austria, "Urlaub am Bauernhof"). He explains how agricultural practices and rural daily life can be made accessible to tourists in a natural and rural environment.

Streifeneder points out that marketing and offerings in this sector are becoming increasingly professional, showing a trend towards high-quality tourist facilities. This raises questions about the distinctive features, offer structuring, and compatibility of tourism as a supplementary income source on an active farm. The contribution provides an overview of the main characteristics, situation, and challenges of agrotourism, distinguishing it from other forms of rural tourism.

Philipp Corradini deals with the resilience of destinations in the tourism context. He provides a comprehensive overview of the concept of resilience in relation to tourism, with a specific focus on tourism destinations.

By defining resilience as the ability to withstand and overcome crises (UN 2017: 25), Corradini explains how destinations can prevent, absorb, and recover from various risks. He emphasizes that this definition includes elements from both the engineering resilience perspective, focused on maintaining system balance and functions, and the ecological resilience perspective, oriented towards the adaptability of socio-ecological systems.

The handbook is aimed at scholars and students in the field of tourism, as well as tourism professionals and policymakers involved in tourism policy.