Abstract: Based on the empirical evidence provided by an evaluation study of the EU Objective 5b programme measures∗ for the expansion of rural tourism, this article discusses the impact of rural tourism on agricultural holdings. It is shown that the financial returns most often do not measure up either to the expectations of the politicians or to that of the farmers. In some respects rural tourism contributes positively to the innovation of the tourist product since its small scale, ‘green’ issues and special facilities differentiate the product from others. But the unleashing of real potential is hampered by the fact that farmers tend to give priority to traditional agriculture and by the fact that industrialized agriculture is not easily combined with the commodifying of agricultural traditions for tourism. The community level inter-organizational innovations which are designed to ensure the marketing and quality control of rural tourism are taking place too slowly. Cooperative efforts in the field of tourism are hampered by the fact that the organizations have not been logically placed in the value chain. This article introduces measures to improve the inter-organizational set-up, suggesting that this is essential if rural tourism is to be launched on any large scale.
Publication Year: 1996
Publication Date: 1996-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 234
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