Abstract
Modern patterns of rural development propose a rational and respectful exploitation of agricultural resources together with the rediscovery of historical and naturalistic heritage as means to reach sustainable development. In this sense, Agritourism represents the contact point between the tourists’ request of wellbeing, genuineness and rediscovery of nature, and the offer of typical agricultural products and touristic services of a network of rural organizations. The aim of this study is to improve our understanding of how agritourism activities can contribute to revitalize rural communities; the study assumes particular importance in a period of economic crisis characterized by the failure of the traditional patterns of rural development. We present key findings of an explorative survey carried out in the Calabria region, Italy, during 2012 on a sample of 52 farms offering agritourism activities. The study deploys an original methodology aimed to highlight the extent of the agritourism phenomena in the selected region and to evaluate how agritourism can support sustainable development of a rural community becoming the hub of an “agritourism rural network”.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Leon, Y.: Rural development in Europe: a research frontier for agricultural economists. European Review of Agricultural Economics (2005)
Murdoch, J.: Networks - a new paradigm of rural development? Journal of Rural Studies 16(4), 407–419 (2000)
Hodge, I.D.: The scope and context of rural development. European Review of Agricultural Economics 13(3), 271–282 (1986)
Allen, P., Van Dusen, D., Lundy, J., Gliessman, S.: Integrating social, environmental, and economic issues in sustainable agriculture. American Journal of Alternative Agriculture 6(1), 34–39 (1991)
Ammirato, S., Felicetti, A.M.: Tourism Breeding Environment: Forms and Levels of Collaboration in the Tourism Sector. In: Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Scherer, R.J. (eds.) PRO-VE 2013. IFIP AICT, vol. 408, pp. 517–524. Springer, Heidelberg (2013)
Volpentesta, A.P., Ammirato, S.: Networking agrifood SMEs and consumer groups in local agribusiness. In: Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Picard, W. (eds.) Pervasive Collaborative Networks. IFIP, vol. 283, pp. 33–40. Springer, Boston (2008)
Volpentesta, A.P., Ammirato, S., Della Gala, M.: Knowledge exchange and social learning opportunities in direct agri-food chains. In: Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Xu, L., Afsarmanesh, H. (eds.) PRO-VE 2012. IFIP AICT, vol. 380, pp. 340–348. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)
Volpentesta, A.P., Ammirato, S.: Alternative Agrifood Networks in a regional area: a case study. The International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing 26(1-2), 55–66 (2013)
Volpentesta, A.P., Ammirato, S.: Enabling Virtual Organizations in a Technological District. In: Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Afsarmanesh, H., Novais, P., Analide, C. (eds.) Establishing the Foundation of Collaborative Networks. IFIP, vol. 243, pp. 103–110. Springer, Boston (2007)
Ilbery, B., Maye, D., Knafsey, M.: Forecasting supply chain developments in lagging rural regions. Journal of Rural Studies 20, 331–344 (2004)
McGehee, N.G., Kyungmi, K.: Motivation for agri-tourism entrepreneurship. Journal of Travel Research 43, 161–170 (2004)
Van der Ploeg, J.D., Long, A., Banks, J.: Rural development: The state of the art. In: Van der Ploeg, J.D., Long, A., Banks, J. (eds.) Living Countrysides. Rural Development Processes in Europe: The State of the Art, pp. 8–17. Elsevier, Amsterdam (2002)
Watts, D.C.H., Ilbery, B., Maye, D.: Making Alternative systems of food provision. Progress in Human Geography 29(1), 22–40 (2005)
Volpentesta, A.P., Ammirato, S.: A Collaborative Network Model for Agrifood Transactions on Regional Base. In: Lytras, M.D., Ordonez de Pablos, P., Ziderman, A., Roulstone, A., Maurer, H., Imber, J.B. (eds.) WSKS 2010. CCIS, vol. 112, pp. 319–325. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)
Corvello, V., Iazzolino, G., Ritrovato, V.: Evaluating technological innovations: A method based on comparable transactions, European Journal of Economics. Finance and Administrative Sciences 56, 37–50 (2013)
Volpentesta, A.P., Ammirato, S., Sofo, F.: Collaborative design learning and thinking style awareness. The International Journal of Engineering Education 28(4), 948–958 (2012)
Volpentesta, A.P., Ammirato, S., Sofo, F.: Thinking style diversity and collaborative design learning. In: Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Paraskakis, I., Afsarmanesh, H. (eds.) PRO-VE 2009. IFIP AICT, vol. 307, pp. 785–796. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)
Sofo, F., Ammirato, S.: Establishing a Learning Culture: the Importance of Relationships within an Organization. In: Lytras, M.D., Ruan, D., Tennyson, R.D., Ordonez De Pablos, P., García Peñalvo, F.J., Rusu, L. (eds.) WSKS 2011. CCIS, vol. 278, pp. 271–277. Springer, Heidelberg (2013)
Sofo, F., Berzins, M., Colapinto, C., Ammirato, S.: North, south, least, best: Geographical location and the thinking styles of Italian university students. Australian Journal of Adult Learning 49(2), 269–291 (2009)
Higgins, V., Dibden, J., Cocklin, C.: Building alternative agrifood networks: Certification, embeddedness and agrienvironmental governance. Journal of Rural Studies, 15–27 (2008)
Volpentesta, A.P., Ammirato, S.: Evaluating e-commerce web interfaces of agri-food SMEs in an European lagging behind region. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management 7(1), 74–91 (2007)
Clemens, R.: Keeping farmers on the land: Adding value in agriculture in the Veneto Region of Italy (MATRIC Briefing Paper 04-MBP 8). Midwest Agribusiness Trade Research and Information Center. Iowa State University, USA (2004)
Weaver, D.B., Fennell, D.A.: The vacation farm sector in Saskatchewan: A profile of operations. Tourism Management 18(6), 357–365 (1997)
Rotheram, I.D.: Emerging concepts and Case Studies of Eco-cultural Tourism. In: Raj, R., Griffin, K.A., Morpeth, N.D. (eds.) Cultural Tourism, CAB International (2013)
Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Afsarmanesh, H., Boucher, X.: The role of collaborative networks in sustainability. In: Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Boucher, X., Afsarmanesh, H. (eds.) PRO-VE 2010. IFIP AICT, vol. 336, pp. 1–16. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)
Ammirato, S., Della Gala, M., Volpentesta, A.P.: Alternative Agrifood Networks as Learning Communities: Some Issues for a Classification model. In: Lytras, M.D., Ruan, D., Tennyson, R.D., Ordonez De Pablos, P., García Peñalvo, F.J., Rusu, L., et al. (eds.) WSKS 2011. CCIS, vol. 278, pp. 293–300. Springer, Heidelberg (2013)
LEGGE 20 FEBBRAIO, n. 96 "Disciplina dell’agriturismo" (2006)
Karabati, S., Dogan, E., Pinar, M., Celik, L.M.: Socio-Economic Effects of Agri-Tourism on Local Communities in Turkey: The Case of Aglasun. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration 10(2), 129–142 (2009)
Marques, H.: Searching for complementarities between agriculture and tourism. Tourism Economics 12, 147–155 (2006)
Phillip, S., Hunter, C., Blackstock, K.: A typology for defining agritourism. Tourism Management 31, 754–758 (2010)
McGehee, N.G.: An Agritourism Systems Model: A Weberian Perspective. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 15(2), 111–124 (2007)
Wilson, J., Thilmay, D., Watson, P.: The role of agritourism in Western states: place specific and policy factors influencing recreational income for producers. Review of Regional Studies 36(3), 381–399 (2006)
ISTAT, Sixth General Census of Agriculture in Italy (2013)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
About this paper
Cite this paper
Ammirato, S., Felicetti, A.M. (2013). The Potential of Agritourism in Revitalizing Rural Communities: Some Empirical Results. In: Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Scherer, R.J. (eds) Collaborative Systems for Reindustrialization. PRO-VE 2013. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 408. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40543-3_52
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40543-3_52
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-40542-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40543-3
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)