Tourism and Sustainable Livelihoods: the case of Taiwan

Abstract

In response to increasing pressure on the agriculture sector, the Taiwan government has implemented a number of development projects, many of which focus on agricultural tourism, to help farmers diversify their sources of income. This article, applying a sustainable livelihood (sl) framework, aims to provide an understanding of the effects of pick-your-own (pyo) farms, as one type of agricultural tourism, upon farmers' livelihoods. Preliminary results indicate that the pyo farm programme has encouraged participant farmers to adopt a series of strategies to benefit from the government-led initiatives and that transforming processes (eg government policies, regulations and institutions) have significantly affected farmers' decisions on livelihood strategies. The article shows that the impact of agricultural tourism in Taiwan is highly complex and that assessment of its contribution to farmers' livelihoods cannot be limited to farm-level economic analysis.

Notes

In addition to data from the author's PhD thesis, parts of this paper also draw on and were first published in Ming-Huang Lee, ‘Farm tourism co-operation in Taiwan’, in D Hall, I Kirkpatrick & M Mitchell, Rural Tourism and Sustainable Business, Clevedon: Channel View, 2005, pp 201–224.

1 Council of Agriculture (coa), Basic Agricultural Statistics, Taipei: coa, 2006.

2 B Goodall, Dictionary of Human Geography, London: Penguin, 1987.

3 Ming-Huang Lee, ‘Agricultural tourism and rural development in Taiwan: the Pick Your Own Farm Programme’, PhD thesis, Department of International and Rural Development, University of Reading, 2003.

4 C Ashley & D Carney, Sustainable Livelihoods: Lessons from Early Experience, London: Department for International Development (dfid), 1999.

5 Ibid; and dfid, Sustainable Livelihoods Guidance Sheets, London: dfid, 1999.

6 R Chambers, ‘Sustainable livelihoods, environment and development: putting poor rural people first’, ids Discussion Paper 240, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies, 1987; and R Chambers & GR Conway, ‘Sustainable rural livelihoods: practical concepts for the 21st century’, ids Document Paper 296, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies, 1992.

7 dfid, Sustainable Livelihoods Guidance Sheets.

8 Ibid.

9 F Ellis, Rural Livelihoods and Diversity in Developing Countries, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

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11 Ellis, Rural Livelihoods and Diversity in Developing Countries.

12 coa, Basic Agricultural Statistics.

13 Tourism Bureau, ‘Travel agents in Taiwan areas’, 7 April 2001, at http://www.motc.gov.tw/service/year-c/ycmain (in Chinese).

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16 HY Jeng, Contributions of Agricultural Tourism to Farmers' Income and Domestic Tourism, Taichung, Taiwan: nchu, 1992 (in Chinese).

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18 A Doorn, L Gerrits, A Jalloh, B Keijzer, H Keijzer, A Kruska & A Schattevoet, ‘Pick-Your-Own’ Farmers and Clients: Are They Aware of Each Other?, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, University of Reading, 1998; and TP Huang, ‘The current situation and future development of pick-your-own (pyo) farms’, Journal of Training and Development, 3 (4), 1986, pp 42–47 (in Chinese).

19 WT Chen, ‘Joining wto and adjustment of food policies’, Journal of Scientific Agriculture, 44 (7–8), 1996, pp 161–172 (in Chinese).

20 Taiwan Provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry (tpdaf), The Planning and Establishing Principles for Pick-Your-Own (pyo) Farms, Official Document Issued by tpdaf on 1 November 1997, Nantou, Taiwan: tpdaf, 1997 (in Chinese).

21 B McKercher, ‘Some fundamental truths about tourism: understanding tourism's social and environmental impacts’, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 1 (1), 1993, pp 6–16.

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23 M Hall & K Rusher, ‘A risky business? Entrepreneurial and lifestyle dimensions of the homestay and bed and breakfast accommodation sector in New Zealand’, in E Arola, J Karkkainnen & M-L Siitari (eds), Tourism and Well-being: The 2nd Tourism Industry and Education Symposium, May 16–18, 2002, Jyväskylä, Finland: Jyväskylä Polytechnic, 2002, pp 197–210.

24 J Gladstone & A Morris, ‘The role of farm tourism in the regeneration of rural Scotland’, in D Hall & L O'Hanlon (eds), Rural Tourism Management: Sustainable Options, Auchincruive: Scottish Agricultural College, 1998, pp 207–221.

25 Hall & Rusher, ‘A risky business?’.

26 Y Iwai & K Taguchi, ‘Rural tourism in Japan: a case study of Hokkaido farm-inns’, in Hall & O'Hanlon (eds), Rural Tourism, pp 277–286.

27 B Bramwell & B Lane, ‘Collaboration and partnerships in tourism planning’, in Bramwell & Lane (eds), Tourism Collaboration and Partnerships: Politics, Practice and Sustainability, Clevedon: Channel View, 2000, pp 1–18.

28 J Clarke, ‘Marketing structures for farm tourism: beyond the individual provider of rural tourism’, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 7 (1), 1999, pp 26–47.

29 CM Hall, ‘Rural wine and food tourism cluster and network development’, in D Hall, I Kirkpatrick & M Mitchell (eds), Rural Tourism and Sustainable Business, Clevedon: Channel View, 2005, pp 149–164.

30 Bramwell & Lane, ‘Collaboration and partnerships in tourism planning’.

31 Ibid.

32 J Clarke, ‘Marketing structures for farm tourism: beyond the individual provider of rural tourism’.

33 M Hall, ‘Rethinking collaboration and partnership: a public policy perspective’, in Bramwell & Lane (eds), Tourism Collaboration and Partnerships: Politics, Practice and Sustainability, Clevedon: Channel View, 2000, pp 143–156.

34 F Ellis, ‘Rural livelihood diversity in developing countries: evidence and policy implications’.