![Sample our Tourism, Hospitality and Events journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5950/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Tourism-Hospitality-Events.jpg"})
Abstract
Farm-based recreation or agritourism is increasingly seen as a diversification strategy to promote a more diverse and sustainable rural economy and to protect farming incomes against market fluctuation. Thus, farmers are increasingly being recognised as entrepreneurial, needing to develop new skills and capabilities to remain competitive. However, few studies have addressed the role of entrepreneurship within the context of the diversified farm tourism business. This paper examines the range of skills and competencies that farmers in the north-west of England identify as important for successful diversification and explores the extent to which these competencies are evident. The findings indicate that although farmers are increasingly turning to agritourism as a means to generate additional income, they lack many of the fundamental business competencies required for success. This has implications for rural development policies and signals the need to address these skill deficiencies through farm advisory processes and via more effective training of and support for agritourism providers.
Notes
For the purposes of this paper the terms agritourism and farm or farm-based tourism are used interchangeably.
The North West Farm Tourism Initiative was a five-year funded project (2002 to 2006) which supported agritourism in the region in the period following the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the UK in the summer of 2001.
These tourist boards were Cumbria Tourism, the Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board, Visit Chester and Cheshire, Visit Manchester and the Mersey Partnership (see Northwest Tourism, Citation2010).