Evaluating the impact of agritourism on local development in small islands

Abstract

Tourism is an activity encompassing economy, society and nature. Besides mass tourism, many different forms of tourism activities and products have developed and are gaining ground in terms of demand. Debates on the definition of such typically small scale activities have brought forward a number of different types, including ‘agrotourism’, ‘agri-tourism’ and ‘rural tourism’. This paper contributes to the conceptual analysis of agritourism with a focus on its effects on local development. After a brief historical sketch of agritourism development, the effects on local development found in the literature are presented. Then, a typology of different forms of agritourism is discussed, including aspects of supply and demand, the scale of operation of the enterprises and networks of enterprises related to agritourism. Finally, we explore the case of small islands, a special type of space, and their local development with these types of ‘alternative’ tourism activities alongside ‘conventional’ tourism. The conceptual framework that results suggests the need for a case and area specific mapping of type, scale and network of enterprises in order to determine impacts and provide important information for managing and planning agritourism, especially on islands.

Keywords

• agritourism
• local development
• networks
• scale
• islands