Defining Rural Tourism And Farm Tourism Tourism Essay

India is sitting on the blitzkrieg of becoming a super power and it is the Indian rural sector that is going to drive that super growth. The Government of India has made rural economic development in general, and rural infrastructure development in particular, is a key priority. India has launched the “Bharat Nirman” (Building India) program, which entails investing over US $ 40 Billion, equivalent to 5 per cent of FY2005 GDP, in six critical areas of rural infrastructure over four years starting from 2005. A part of this project aims at improving the tourism and recreation in these areas.

Jafari and Ritchie (1981) defined tourism as an interdisciplinary study which integrates a variety of subjects, disciplines and focuses and can be seen from numerous points of views and approaches. The tourism as a central study can be studied from many focuses and created into a new form tourism development model as pictured below.

(3) A consequential element resulted from the two preceding elements which is concerned with effects on the economic, physical and social subsystems.

Some external variables such as rising earnings, mobility increase, level of education increase, and desire to escape from pressure of day-to-day urban living generate effective demands on tourism which stimulate the rise of various forms of tourisms such as recreational tourism, cultural tourism, health tourism, conference tourism, historical tourism, eco tourism, etcetera (Wall and Mathieson, 1982).

Defining rural:

Definitions of rural vary both in scale and philosophy. They tend to express cultural differences between and functional requirements within, regions and countries, the varying parameters of which supranational overviews have attempted to grapple. While national governments use specific criteria to define rural often based on the population density of settlements there is no universal agreement on the critical population threshold which distinguishes between urban and rural populations (Boedewes, 1981).

OECD defines rural area as “At a local level a population density of 150 persons per square kilometre is the preferred criterion. At the regional level, geographic units are grouped by the share of their population that is rural into the following three types: predominantly rural (50%), significantly rural (15-50%) and urbanized rural (15%)” (OECD, 1994).

According to National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) rural areas in India are defined as those areas which have a population density < 400 / Sq Km with 75 percent of the male working population is engaged in agriculture and no established municipal corporation.

Defining rural tourism and farm tourism:

A variety of terms are employed to describe tourism activity in rural areas: agritourism, farm tourism, rural tourism, soft tourism and several others which have often been used interchangeably.

The term agri/farm tourism often used to describe all tourism activities in rural areas more frequently related to tourism products which are directly connected with the agrarian environment, agrarian products or agrarian stays: staying on a farm or near the fields, educational visits, meals, recreational activities and such ( Sharpley and Sharpley, 1997).

Agrotourism is businesses conducted by farmers whose working agricultural operations for the enjoyment and education of visitors. In extensions meaning, agrotourism presents the potential generating farm revenues and increasing profitability. Additionally, visitors of agrotourism contact directly with farmers and support the increase of agriculture products indirectly (Jolly and Reynolds, 2005).

Farm tourism is largely considered as a subset of rural tourism and is quite often based on an active working farm and farmer (Nilsson, 2002). Clarke (1996) elaborates that in farm tourism, the core essence of farming, its scenic beauty, accommodation and activities such as farming, riding a tractor, picking produce are preserved and involves tremendous experience in its activities. Activities on farm offer experience and opportunities to learn about the rural life and agriculture technique of the country, to understand and experience the preserved tradition, calmness, peace, clean fresh environment, contact with animals and traditional farm meals (Nilsson, 2002 and Fleischer and Tchetchik, 2005).

Key elements of pure farm tourism (Lane 1994):

Located in rural areas

Functionally rural: built upon rural world’s special features of small scale enterprise, open space, contact with nature and the natural world, heritage, “traditional’ societies and “traditional” practices

Provides personalized contact

Rural in scale-both in terms of buildings and settlements and therefore usually small scale

Traditional in character, growing slowly and organically and connected with local families. It will often to be largely controlled and developed for the long term good of the area

Of many different kinds, representing the complex patterns of rural environment, economy, history and location.

A high percentage of tourism revenue benefiting the rural community.

Tourism versus Farm Tourism:

According to Shaw and Williams (2004), there have been various definitional issues regarding what tourism is. They indicate that a broad outlook of tourism allows for the identification of tourism between countries and also tourism within a country. Vanhove (2005) sees tourism is seen as any activity related to momentary movement of people to a place outside their normal places of residence and employment, and the activities they engage in during the stay.

Farm tourism began in earnest after World War II, although its beginning is rooted in the concept of “social tourism” that was popular in the 1920s and 1930s (Pearce, 1990). Farm tourism as used by Roberts and Hall (2001) refers to “stays in rural homesteads” where farming is practiced either full-time or part-time.

Farm tourism is often used interchangeably with “agritourism” (Oppermann, 1997). Farm tourism is a sub-division of agritourism. It involves activities carried out on “working farms where the working environment forms part of the product” from the perception of the consumer (Roberts and Hall, 2001). Farm tourism involves engaging the farm more than the primary production of food, fibre and raw materials. It may sometimes involve activities off the farm in addition to accommodation on the farm (Roberts and Hall, 2001).

A number of studies on farm tourism consider it as an economic alternative for farmers who are facing decreased profits and difficulties generated by the agricultural crisis and restructuring. The opportunity to engage in activities that are negatively correlated with farming and the prospect of increasing farm income by spreading costs is probably the greatest advantage of incorporating tourism into the farm business. Because of the problems in agriculture, diversification has been viewed as a means of survival for farm business, with tourism thought to be an attractive and feasible option open to farmers (Glenn et al. 1997).

There has been a discussion on the “livelihood assets” of farm households in the context of human (i.e. skills and knowledge), economic (i.e. land, capital and labour), environmental (i.e. landscape features, clean air and water), social (i.e. networks and social interaction), cultural (i.e. include history, tradition, folklore and cultural heritage) and political (i.e. decision making power and influence on policies) that are available for and that can be exploited in the diversification process. In essence, when farmers utilize the potential opportunity for farm tourism and diversify, they shield themselves against the constraints of the cost-price squeeze and income decline (Barlett, 1993).

Significance of farm tourism:

Various estimates suggest that tourism in rural areas make up 10-20% of all tourism activity. Lane (1994) survey pointed out that there is absence of any systematic source of data on “rural tourism”, since neither the World Tourism Organization(WTO) nor the Organization for economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has appropriate measures. Several constraints on accurate and comparatively meaningful data relating to rural tourism and recreation therefore persist:

Differences in national definition and enumeration: one country may include only farm and nature tourism, while another will consider many economic activities outside of urban areas to be a part of rural tourism;

Many rural tourists and recreationalists are excursionists (day visitors) rather than those who make overnight stays (the extend of whom can to be some extent be measured in terms of bed-nights)

Rural tourism’s very diversity and fragmentation whereby tens of thousands of enterprises and public initiatives are active across the world. Rural environments have a long history of being managed for recreation purposes and this symbiotic relationship has had important impacts on both environment and activity.

Farm tourism is one area under rural tourism, which is a sub-division of rural tourism that can help generate income and employment (Novelli and Robinson, 2005 and Sharpley and Sharpley, 1997). Hence, farm tourism is becoming widely seen as a means to tackle the socio economic problem of rural and agricultural sector (Sharpley and Vas, 2005). As farm tourism has the potential to offer experiential service to tourist, understanding this experience proves beneficial to improve service (McIntosh and Bonnemann, 2006), also as farm tourism takes places in rural setting offering traditional service; understanding tourist motivation seems important.

Range of tourism and recreation activities in rural areas ( Thibal 1988) modified

Touring

Hiking

Cycling

Nature parks

Bird watching

Rural heritage studies

Local industrial, agricultural or craft enterprises

Courses in crafts

Artistic expression workshops

Folk groups

Cultural, gastronomic and other routes

Water related activities

Fishing

Swimming

Boating

Hallmark events

Rural sporting events (eg, Jallikatu sport in Tamil nadu)

Agricultural shows

Business related

Small scale conventions

Incentive tourism short brakes

Passive activities

Relaxing holidays in a rural milieu

Nature study in outdoor settings

Photography

Landscape appreciation

Embacher (1994) identifies the contributions of farm tourism to the farming sector. The first recognition is that farm tourism provides more economic income for farmers, thus the farmers are able to cope and remain self employed in times of negative changes in the prices of agricultural produce/commodities. The second is that farm tourism provides an avenue for the direct sale of produce from farm. The third is that farm tourism contributes to the economic survival of farmers experiencing the effects of stiff competition, and changes in agricultural and trade policies.

Impacts of farm tourism:

Although tourism continues to be viewed by some as a panacea for the economic and social ills of the countryside it:

Is essentially an economic tool

Needs to be part of a portfolio of strategies contributing to successful rural development

Is not appropriate in all rural areas, but opportunity costs and factors for its comparative advantage will vary considerably from one type of rural area to another.

Economic factors reducing tourisms effectiveness as a rural development tool include income leakages, volatility, a declining multiplier, low pay, and imported labour, the limited number of entrepreneurs in rural areas and the conservatism of investors. Rural tourism is better suited to act as a complement to an existing thriving and diverse rural economy (Butler and Clark 1992).

Tourism plays an increasingly important and diversified role in local development, especially in revitalizing and reorganizing local economies, and improving the quality of life. Tourist flows can be generators of at least supplementary income in farming, craft and service sectors. Rendering the possibility to realize the economic value of specific, quality based production of food stuff as well as of unused and abandoned buildings, unique scenery, space and culture.

Despite often being characterized by host-guest differences, rural tourism can open up the possibility of new social contacts, especially in breaking down the isolation of more remote areas and social groups. Opportunities to revaluate heritage and its symbols the environment and the identity of rural places is also promoted by rural tourism. Rural tourism development strategies should assist policies of environmental and social sustainability (Cavaco, 1995).

Farm tourism generates a significant contribution to the rural development process in rural areas and does indeed do so in many cases (Busby and Rendle, 2000). The contributions could be in the forms of income increase and job opportunities, exchange between rural and urban areas, multiplier effects particularly for small-scale direct investments, strengthening local or regional structures by creating networks and the like, stimulating physical infrastructure developments, increasing the diversity of economic activities, raising awareness of the value of an area, such as its landscape, nature and culture, and the economic potencies, as well as improving the infrastructure which enable to provide opportunities for other economic developments.

The negative impacts of agrotourism development will occur when the development ignores the development principles and ethics. The potential negative impacts which may occur such as degradation of environment and local culture qualities, and economics gaps among the regions (Henegan, 2002)

Concept of Farm Diversification

Fundamental processes of restructuring, the decline in farm income and a dwindling farm population have characterized the agricultural sector of industrial society. Tapping into opportunities such as farm tourism can have significant potential for farmers. The identification and promotion of farms as a result of their location, natural attraction and tourist-oriented facilities is essential in the process of diversification. The key feature of diversification is that it seeks to encourage investment in sectors that are usually different from those in which recent hardships have befallen (Lobao, L. and Meyer, 2001).

There are three common means of farm diversification (The Centre for Rural Research (2003). The first is “agricultural diversification” which is the use of farm resources to produce new sources of income (e.g. crop products, animal products, and farm woodland). The second is “structural or business diversification”. In this case, farm households have a variety of income from business activities (e.g. tourism, and value added activities) that are run on the farm or are partly dependent on the farm based land and capital assets. The third is “passive diversification” which includes leasing of agricultural land and buildings.

Factors that Determine Diversification into Farm Tourism

Shaw and Williams (2004) shed light on the factors that influence the decision of farm households regarding diversification and what types of alternative enterprise to diversify into. These factors according to Wheelen and Hunger (2004) are the external and internal stimuli. The “external” stimuli stems from the external environment. They refer to the opportunities and threats that the farm household is exposed to (e.g. external capital sources, legal frameworks, market trends, change in technology, and sociocultural trends). The “internal” stimuli refer to strengths and weaknesses that are likely to determine if the enterprise will be able to take advantage of opportunities. These internal stimuli include profitability, availability of time, and family life course.

More apparent farm tourism activities include accommodation, (e.g. bed & breakfast, farm accommodation, ranch) and recreational activities (e.g. wildlife viewing, hunting, fishing, and horseback riding) (Clarke, 1996). Others include educational activities (e.g. garden or nursery tours, historical agricultural display tours, and agricultural technical tours), direct farm product sales (e.g. on the farm sales of farm produce, pick your own operations, and sale of agricultural related crafts), entertainment activities (e.g. barn dances, harvest festivals and hunting) (Matthews, 2004).

Motivation :

Tourists opting for rural tourism such as farm tourism do so in order to satisfy their needs, wants and are likely to chose destinations that are not just rural in physical features but also stimulate them psychologically through the image it portrays (Frochot, 2005 and Bramwell and Lane 1994). Sharpley (1996) stresses that tourist opting for tourism in rural areas are in fact trying to seek peace tranquillity, space, authenticity, tradition, simplicity all of which would help urban dwellers relieve stress. According to study conducted by Hopkins (1998) revealed that the motivational factors for tourist to respond to rural tourism advertisements was because it satiated the desire to escape to different environment in order to enjoy experience of different quality and authenticity. Another study conducted by Huang and Tsai (2003) reports that the prospects of socializing and interacting, participating and experiencing novel situations, escape from stressed life were some underlying motives for travel to rural destinations. These motives could also be applicable for farm tourists. Hence, it can be assumed that evidently urban dwellers are motivated to opt for farm tourism to escape from the stressful, mundane life.

In order to understand tourist travel behaviour Crompton(1979) mentions that identifying motivation is the key factor. Motivation surfaces the reason behind travel and participation in travel activities (Jang, Bai, Hu, Wu, 2009). The literature constantly mention that motivation is the driving force that make individuals take actions( Park and Yoon, 2009). Hence, it is crucial that study be conducted on tourist motivation as it would aid point out elements that could be promoted inorder to entice tourist to particular destination that match their motivation to travel(Kozak, 2001). Motivation is the key to create attitude for opting a destination and also generating expectation which when fulfilled, all ultimately forms the bases that influences the image of a destination (Rodriguez del Bosque, San Martin, Collado and Garcia de los Salmones,2009). Though motivation reveals the key question why people travel, it also helps understanding the psychological factors ( Gnoth, 1997, Goossens, 2000). Moutinho (2000) mentions motivation as the dominant component that influences human behaviour. It also serves as a driving force to satiate individuals physiological and psychological needs ( Berkman, Lindquist and Sirgy, 1997). According to Cohen (1974) studies undertaken to understand the motives behind travel help realize the social and psychological facts of tourism. Thus motivational reasons can be seen as a psychological need that cause disequilibrium and is satiated through travel experience( Crompton, 1979 ; Kim, Crompton and Botha, 2000). In other words, the motivation to travel arises when individuals desire to fullfill their need deficiency ( Mill and Morrison, 2002).

Maslows theory of needs seems to be widely adapted in literature, however researcher also point out the theory weakness and mention that motivation to fullfill one’s needs, need not start from bottom to up but multiple needs could arise in random order in Maslow’s hierarchy( Goebel and Brown, 1981). Criticism of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory also includes that the concepts are generalized and posses a barrier to be tested, as precise measuring to understand the flow of needs is not possible( Schniffman and Kanuk, 1997).

The earliest study on identifying motives behind travel were put forth by Lundberg(1971), by identifying assumed 18 motivation factors. Later on bases on indepth interview Crompton(1979) based on this study put forth 9 motives that influence people to travel and were based on sociopsychological and cultural motives or push and pull motives. Sociopsychological needs or push factor are internal and influence individuals to travel and pull factor are external that influeces individual to travel to a particular destination because of its influencing attraction on the pull factor(Oh, Uysal and Weaver, 1995). For example the desire to escape for a stress life could be considered as the push factor and with farm tourism capable to offer scenic calm uncrowned environment could be considered a pull factor that might satiate an individuals need to escape. Understanding motivation has also interested studies related to decision making, market segmentation and destination choice(Jang, Bai, HU and Wu, 2009). These factors were then generalized by Goeldner and Ritchie(2003) under the typology such as (a) physical (b) cultural (c) interpersonal (d) prestige. Authors commonly accept Cromptons model when it comes to the study of tourist motivation as it helps understand tourist’s intangible intrinsic motive behind choice of destination ( Kozak, 2001 and Bansal and Eiselt, 2004).

Several studies have gone about adapting Crompton’s theory to find motivational factors of nationalities, senior citizens, influence of motivation on satisfaction, motives to select particular destination ( Yuan, McDonald, 1990; Zhang and Lim 1999; Yoon and Uysal, 2005; Jang and Wu, 2006). Though studies on motivations have been carried out extensively, few studies have been undertaken to understand motivation in rural settings (Park and Yoon, 2009). For this research, which will be undertaken in India, the researcher would adapt Crompton’s theory to understand motives of tourist in farm tourism.

From the literature, it suggests that quite evidently the motives by Crompton seem to form the backbone to understand motives of tourist to opt farm tourism.

Experience:

Rural tourism is know for its diversity and versatility and is commonly used as a subsititute to farm tourism, ecotourism , nature tourism or wildlife tourism; however in reality the above terms are specific to tourism with distinct activities, however with a common underlyning factor that all these forms of tourism take place in a rural setting( Sharpley, 1996).

Previous researches have concentrated heavily on service delivery and service performance, however now there is growing need to have an understanding of experience derived from service industry such as tourism( Schmitt, 1999 and Pine and Gilmore, 1999). This suggests that academia lacks the study on experience derived by customers. In todays world of service industry, the importance for understanding experience has gained momentum (Miranda, 2009). Experience can be defined as ‘events that engage individuals in a personal way’ ( Bigne and Andreu, 2004,p692) or the ‘subjective mental state felt by participants during a service encounter’ ( Otto and Ritchie, 1996, p 166). Tourist perceive their own experience based on personal motivation and underlying reason they wish to fullfill whilst participating in activities( MacIntosh and Prentice 1999).

Experience involves intermingling of various elements that fuses and influence tourist senses (Shaw and Ivens, 2002).Experience occurs when conscious state of mind is stimulated through thoughts and feeling. O’Dell ( 2005) mentions experiencescape as a space where individuals have the control and freedom to interact with the environment and enjoy feeling of pleasure and entertainment. Such a feeling could also be derived when engaging in farm tourism. Experience can be studied either from a marketing approach or social science approach(Mosseberg, 2007). For the study of farm tourism the researcher finds social science approapriate for farm tourism. Since from the social science perspective tourist are keen to derive experience that is different from the normal daily experiences and wish to participate is new and different activities ( Quan and Wang, 2004). This seems similar to tourist opting farm tourism as they would wish to derive a completely different feeling.

The experience derived by customers from services can be generalized however experience depends on the level of participation of tourist into experiential activities offeredPine and Gilmore(1999). It is likely that tourist though would be motivated to enjoy different experience would rather not be through active participation but by passive unplanned activities (Ryan, Hughes and Chirgwin, 2000). This suggests that it is likely for tourists wanting to consume the experience of the activities in the farm, to participate either actively or passively. Service industry offering such experiential service need to concentrate and put in efforts to understand the experience perceived by consumer participating in such activities ( Schmitt, 2003). In order to do so Schmitt(2003) divided experience under sense experience that aids consumer satiate the need for scenic and tranquillity. The need for fun and pleasure as experience to feel, the desire to acquire knowledge and understand novelty as think-experience, Act-experience that would enhance one’s lifestyle, and lastly the relate- experience that enhances one’s connection and relation with others providing a feeling of importance and belonging. Xu and Chan(2010) in their discussion on experience in tourism acknowledge the dimensions of experience put forth by Otto and Ritchie, 1996 has been proved to be of value and valid for the study of experience. Hence the dimensions of experience can also be applied to understand the experience derived from the experiential services offered in farm tourism

Tourists whilst consuming the experience from activites or services, could be influence with the environment the physical feature that surround the activity and this has an impact on perception of experience (Bitner, 1992). Business sectors are now focusing on studying and understanding experience and are trying to constantly create the environment in business that would provide better unique experience that would help attract more consumers. Consumers now are in the look out of activities which can be self controlled and also provide unique valued experience( Mossberg, 2007) Tourist business are putting in efforts to create such services and circumstances that could provide experience that customers are looking for and are also trying to develop strategies to attract tourist(Gilmore and Pine 2002). However, farm tourism is undoubtedly full of natural experiential activities that have the potential to offer consumers with unique experience and by understanding the experience that tourist go through whilst indulging in farm activities, which is also the focus of this research would help in promotion that is more effective and attract more tourists. As tourism in rural settings such as farm tourism has tremendous opportunity to offer varied experience, this would positively attract to the market and could also serve as a motive for tourist to opt for such tourism (Getz and Page, 1997).

When tourist consume experience, it could also be in tangible form such as the purchase of artifacts, which serves as a reminder and rejuvenation of the experience derived( Onderwater, Richards and Stam, 2000). Hedonic consumption, related to desires to undergo varied experience and when certain products are able to provide such desired experience it appeals and attracts consumers and could be considered to be a motivational factor fulfilling the desire ( Mowen and Minor, 1998). Hence, the study might help understand the experience that tourists undergo on farms and if this has been an influence on motivational factor. Bansal and Eiselt (2004) mention that experience or hedonic components of an activity are incorporated in the motive for travel. Which is also supported by Foster(1999) as he considers experience as a critical part in tourist motivation. The satisfaction of experience also directly relates to realization of motives to travel (Ross and Iso-Ahola, 1991). Thus if experience offered by activities in farm tourism and experience that tourist wish to seek are know it would also help satisfy the motives and in turn attract more market wishing to seek similar satisfaction. Studies examining the experiences provided at attraction to tourist is increasing( McIntosh and Siggs, 2005 ; Schanzel and McIntosh, 2000). Thus offering knowledge on the important relation tourism encounters have on visitor and their impact on providing unique benefits and satisfaction. Hence Pearce 1990 recognises the fact that tourist opting for destinations such as farm tourism have more mature motives and also expect for personal and meaningful experience above all. This suggests that apart from understanding the motives to travel to farm it is also vital to understand experience offered by farm activities.