Institutes & CentersInstitute for Regional Development - Rural Resources - Projects - Agritourism

Agritourism

Competence Center Agritourism

Agritourism represents an on-farm diversification activity to generate supplementary agricultural income. Thus, the touristic activities help to compensate the decreasing income from selling farm products. This generally supports the maintaince of the cultivation of farm land. Guest can enjoy the direct interaction with the farmer and the family, get an insight in agricultural activities and taste farm products. The institute´s research and networking aims at promoting a sustainable and authentic development of this type of tourism in rural areas.

Project duration: September 2018 - December 2028
Project status:
Funding:
Internal funding EURAC (Project)
Total project budget: €15,000.00
Website: http://agritourism.eurac.edu/
Institute: Institute for Regional Development

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Scientific Publications

Journal article2024

Comparative analysis of alpine agritourism in Trentino, Tyrol, and South Tyrol: Regional variations and prospects

Grillini G, Streifeneder T, Sacchi G, Fischer C

Thomas Streifeneder

Agritourism is an increasingly popular form of tourism that entails visiting farms to engage in activities and gain insights into the farming way of life. This research explores the economic, social, and environmental dynamics of agritourism in the Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino Euroregion with a specific emphasis on the three distinct regional entities in Austria and Italy: the Austrian state of Tyrol (comprising North and East Tyrol) and the Italian autonomous provinces of South Tyrol and Trentino. It addresses two key research aims: uncovering regional distinctions among these Alpine provinces and understanding the motivations, challenges, and future plans of agritourism operators. A comprehensive review of existing literature frames the study, while data collection involves an online survey of agritourism farms in the region. Distinctive characteristics emerge, with Trentino emphasizing restaurant services, sustainability, and community engagement. South Tyrol prioritizes quality accommodations and work–life balance, while Tyrol aligns closer with South Tyrol’s focus. Notably, economic factors exert a substantial influence on their motivations to embrace agritourism, underscoring their pivotal role in this context. Despite facing challenges such as “time management and labour,” “meeting visitors’ expectations,” and “local permits and taxes,” most agritourism operators across the region display willingness to expand their activity in the future. Overall, agritourism in the study area is characterized by significant structural and operational differences resulting in different future public support and regulatory needs.

DOI Source

DOI: 10.1515/opag-2022-0281

Journal article2023

Differences in sustainability outcomes between agritourism and non-agritourism farms based on robust empirical evidence from the Tyrol/Trentino mountain region

Grillini G, Sacchi G, Streifeneder T, Fischer C

Thomas Streifeneder

Agritourism is an increasingly popular form of rural tourism that involves agricultural activities and operations aimed at attracting visitors to a farm. We contribute to the literature by examining the sustainability differences between agritourism (ATFs) and non-agritourism farms (non-ATFs) in the Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino Euroregion and the impact of agritourism on traditional farming activities. The research questions are answered using collected farm survey data (n = 493) and propensity score techniques that allow to estimate treatment effects of agritourism adoption by controlling for selection biases. The results reveal that agritourism adoption has a positive impact on economic sustainability outcomes such as income increases, but negative impacts on production quantity and production value. As to social sustainability outcomes, we find negative effects of agritourism activity on family free time and interactions with the local community, but a positive impact on partner involvement in farm activities. Environmentally, some practices adopted by ATFs become more sustainable, such as a higher use of organic production, renewable energies and active waste management, but others do not. The results indicate that agritourism can offer sustainability advantages, but a differentiated assessment is necessary. Therefore, for policy decisions, it is crucial to understand the benefits and drawbacks of agritourism and align public support measures with overall rural development policy objectives while also considering agritourism promotion effects on food security and local-food production needs.

DOI Source

DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2023.103152

Journal article2023

The future of agritourism? A review of current trends of touristic commercialisation in rural areas

Streifeneder T, Hoffmann C, Corradini P

Thomas Streifeneder, Philipp Corradini, Christian Hoffmann

Tourism in rural areas has enjoyed increasing demand and experienced new forms of
implementation. The expanding quantitative and qualitative development of highquality agritourism establishments in South Tyrol/Italy is an interesting and exemplary case for the commercialisation of rural tourism. For this scope, we analysed the websites of seventeen high-quality agritourism businesses in this region. We studied, how they conduct the commercialisation of agricultural and touristic features and to
what extent offers and services have been commodified. Our findings show in most cases very professionally managed websites that feature high-quality hotel-like facilities. At the same time, they provide significantly less information on farming and related activities. Thus, our results highlight the characteristics of this growing touristic commercialisation of high-quality (commercial) agritourism establishments. Furthermore, we discuss the implications for the objectives of this sector, in which authentic everyday experiences of agriculture and rurality are a crucial feature for the target groups and the perception of farming and the image of the sector.

DOI Source

DOI: 10.1007/s00168-022-01126-w

Journal article2022

Qualitative Assessment of Agritourism Development Support Schemes in Italy, the USA and South Africa

Grillini G, Sacchi G, Chase L, Taylor J, C. Van Zyl C, Van Der Merwe P, Streifeneder T, Fischer C

Thomas Streifeneder

Agritourism has grown rapidly in many countries worldwide. However, for all this success,
little is known about the concrete implementation, actual extent, and effectiveness of public and
private agritourism support measures aimed at keeping up farming and promoting agritourism.
Hence, the objective of this study is to provide an overview and a comparison of agritourism supports
and policies in different countries. To this purpose, specific political, legal, financial, and promotional
instruments for agritourism have been investigated. The focus is on three countries with strong
agritourism sectors and different socio-cultural characteristics: Italy, the USA, and South Africa.
The analysis of these case study areas is motivated by examination of agritourism from different
continents with a diverging status of development as well as history. Italy and the USA are two
countries with well-established and successful agritourism sectors; however, these are based on very
different framework conditions, resulting in specific development paths and various supportive
driving factors. South Africa has been included as a representative case study of a developing country
where agritourism operations are growing rapidly through the support of an active private sector
association. By assessing commonalities and differences in public and private support backgrounds
in three different continents, the present study represents the first exploratory attempt to understand
the influences of public and private national and regional framework conditions for agritourism
development. Our findings suggest that both public and private supports contribute to success;
however, clear criteria and further research are needed in order to fully understand the implications.

DOI Source

DOI: 10.3390/su14137903

All Publications

Comparative analysis of alpine agritourism in Trentino, Tyrol, and South Tyrol: Regional variations and prospects
Grillini G, Streifeneder T, Sacchi G, Fischer C (2024)
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Journal article
Open Agriculture

More information: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/opag-2022-0281

https://doi.org/10.1515/opag-2022-0281

Honoring heritage : How agritourism models maintain cultures, create opportunities and act as a resource for keeping rural areas active
Wolffe R, Chase L, Streifeneder T (2024)
Internet

More information: https://www.eurac.edu/en/magazine/honoring-heritage

The future of agritourism? A review of current trends of touristic commercialisation in rural areas
Streifeneder T, Hoffmann C, Corradini P (2023)
Journal article
The Annals of Regional Science

More information: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-022-01126-w

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-022-01126-w

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Project Team

Thomas Streifeneder

Andrea Omizzolo

Anna Silbernagl

Scientific Advisory Board

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Journal article2022

Qualitative Assessment of Agritourism Development Support Schemes in Italy, the USA and South Africa

Grillini G, Sacchi G, Chase L, Taylor J, C. Van Zyl C, Van Der Merwe P, Streifeneder T, Fischer C

Thomas Streifeneder

DOI Source

DOI: 10.3390/su14137903

Agritourism