Integrating the natural environment into tourism firms' business model for sustainability.

The link between the business model (BM) and sustainability is recognized in tourism research and practice, especially as far as its socioeconomic consequences are concerned. Moreover, prior studies have highlighted some key factors influencing the sustainable business models (SBMs) of tourism firms but have mainly done so by adopting static perspectives. Thus, how these firms can contribute to sustainability through their BMs with positive effects, particularly on natural resources, remains overlooked. Thus, we adopt coevolutionary lenses to explore the main processes surrounding tourism firms' SBM. Coevolution conceives the firm-environment relationship as both circular, with mutual influence and reciprocal changes, and dialectical. Accordingly, we analyze 28 Italian agritourism firms during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency period focusing on the dynamics of their relationship with various multilevel actors (including institutions, local communities, tourists) by considering internal and external factors influencing their SBM. The dialectical nature of this relationship is stressed. We find three new factors: sustainable tourism culture, tourist loyalty, and local natural resource setting. Moreover, from the coevolutionary analysis of the findings, we derive a framework that conceptualizes agritourism SBMs as a virtuous coevolutionary process through effective coadaptations between multilevel actors influenced by 12 factors. Tourism entrepreneurs and policy-makers should carefully consider the factors influencing SBMs and try to act upon them to effectively organize and manage relationships of mutual functionality in light of current challenges, especially environmental concerns.

How recreational farm operators use dynamic capabilities to respond to COVID-19 pandemic

The outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic has devastated economic activities around the world. The tourism industry is facing severe challenges, such as reduced tourist flow and the lack of tourist consumption at desti-nations. Recreational farms are one of the business types of agricultural tourism in Taiwan and have the char-acteristics of small and medium-sized agriculture businesses. The operator is facing an uncertain environment in the epidemic market, and the operator's dynamic capability is considered to be effective in coping with the current environment. In this study, 20 selected recreational farms were interviewed to explore how operators use dynamic capabilities to make responses. The results show that recreational farms have the three elements of dynamic capabilities: sense, seize, and transform, to change farm marketing channels and develop new products or services to respond to the new market. Recreational farm operators adopted resource optimization, computerization, and cost control strategies to respond to the market. Management implications: A successful implementation of recreational farm offers requires-the reallocation of resources, -the planning of new products and services, and-the improvement of service processes to create new business and to address additional target groups.The COVID-19 pandemic forces a systematic positioning or repositioning of the business.

How recreational farm operators use dynamic capabilities to respond to COVID-19 pandemic. (Special Issue: Covid-19 and outdoor recreation.)

The outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic has devastated economic activities around the world. The tourism industry is facing severe challenges, such as reduced tourist flow and the lack of tourist consumption at destinations. Recreational farms are one of the business types of agricultural tourism in Taiwan and have the characteristics of small and medium-sized agriculture businesses. The operator is facing an uncertain environment in the epidemic market, and the operator's dynamic capability is considered to be effective in coping with the current environment. In this study, 20 selected recreational farms were interviewed to explore how operators use dynamic capabilities to make responses. The results show that recreational farms have the three elements of dynamic capabilities: sense, seize, and transform, to change farm marketing channels and develop new products or services to respond to the new market. Recreational farm operators adopted resource optimization, computerization, and cost control strategies to respond to the market.

Agrotourism as peripheral and ultraperipheral community livelihoods diversification strategy: Insights from the Okavango Delta, Botswana

The potential of agrotourism for livelihoods diversification in remote (peripheral) and extremely remote (ultraperipheral) traditional, agrarian communities is indeed a testament of its uniqueness to enhance rural entrepreneurship development, employment creation and poverty alleviation. In an arid environment such as Botswana's where traditional agricultural concerns are generally impeded by inclement weather conditions exacerbated by climate variability and change scenarios, identifying opportunities in challenges associated with livelihood activities might provide a better pathway for improving rural socio-economic wellbeing and development. Semi-structured interviews and a literature review were used to document the current status and evolution of agrotourism in rural Botswana;and identify the associated constraints and opportunities, which the subsector might offer emerging entrepreneurs. Major findings reveal that agrotourism activities are relatively new and still fledgling in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. While 4.8 percent of the initiatives investigated accounts for agrotourism initiatives that are fully and currently operational in the area, another 4.8 percent constitutes the business initiatives, which are still not fully operational. Findings also revealed that most agrotourism businesses in the Okavango Delta were challenged by inadequate capital outlays constituting an impediment to running a successful business. While bureaucratic bottlenecks associated with registering agrotourism projects is a challenge for some entrepreneurs, a few others are bedeviled by lack of market for their products. The relatively fledgling status of agrotourism in the area might offer a good business opportunity for potential entrepreneurs and the government to fully exploit the socio-economic benefits of the subsector and push a more sustainable environmental conservation agenda, respectively. • Agrotourism as an alternative to mainstream ecotourism and a veritable pathway for socio-economic and rural development has not taken strong foothold in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. • The sector offers the potential for livelihoods diversification in peripheral and ultraperipheral, agrarian communities situated within wildlife areas. • COVID-19 pandemic, which has significantly affected ecotourism in Botswana, provides the impetus to drive the development of agrotourism for rural employment creation. • The ability of enterprising wildlife farmers to individually oversee their stocks within a manageable geographical scale could minimize poaching and enhance a better management of wildlife resources, and substantial economic returns on investment. • Agrotourism could propel national socio-economic development and push a more sustainable environmental conservation agenda in a fragile, arid environment. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Arid Environments is the property of Academic Press Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Agritourism

The author of the article presents the current topic regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on agritourism. In the first part, the international and Polish literature is reviewed in terms of the impact of the pandemic and its consequences in the area of agritourism. In the further part of the work, the author presents the materials and methods used in the study. The results of the research, along with descriptions and explanations, are developed in the third part of the article. The last part of the work presents the conclusions of the research, confirming the thesis. The aim of the article is to show the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the agritourism area in five provinces. The diagnostic survey method was used and the questionnaire was sent via social media. The most important conclusion is that the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on agritourism, causing changes both in the financial issue and in the forms of marketing used to improve business operations. © 2022 Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej w Lublinie. All rights reserved.

Labor Shortage Poses Safety Challenges for Growing Agritourism Industry.

Trends: Agritourism is increasingly popular, generating the need for additional employees. Given the labor shortages in the U.S., this motivates producers on agritourism operators to develop strategies to address the labor shortages, some of which could impact worker safety. Research and current initiatives: Contributing factors to labor shortages in agriculture include the aging workforce, declining rural populations, the stressful nature of agricultural work, long hours and less labor intensive options. Foreign labor has been impacted by immigration policy changes, H2A program inefficiencies and the recent pandemic. Staffing agritourism operations is further complicated by the need for seasonal employees and staff with varying skill sets, such as hospitality, food service, and retail; industries with critical labor shortages. Some strategies agritourism operators employ to address staff shortages (e.g. employees work longer hours, hiring younger staff) may impact safety. Collaborations between producers and safety professionals could help develop strategies to address labor shortages while ensuring worker safety. Gaps in knowledge, regulation and practice: More information is needed on employees on agritourism operations including the number of employees, hours worked, tasks performed, safety training provided, impact of customers in worksites, injuries incurred, current strategies employed to address the labor shortages, and motivators for staff to participate in safety training. Recommendations for the future: Research is needed to address the gaps in knowledge previously mentioned, and the information gathered used to develop recommendations, safety strategies and resources to help agritourism operators employ effective recruitment and retention strategies that also help establish a safe working environment.

System dynamics modeling for developing an agrotourism-creative economy in the framework of the village innovation system

Cibodas village is one of the villages in the regency of West Bandung, which shows potential for agrotourism and a creative economy. However, the dynamic environmental changes in the post-COVID-19 era have presented challenges to developing these economic potentials. Therefore, creating a model to develop agrotourism and a creative economy in Cibodas village is necessary. This study aims to create a system dynamics model with a causal loop diagram (CLD) based on the village innovation system framework to develop the agrotourism-creative economy in Cibodas village. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are used to identify the main variables and to develop and review the CLD. The quantitative approach provides researchers with three main variables that must be involved in the study, namely, the general innovation infrastructure, specific industrial clusters, and intermediation. The three variables are interrelated and form a CLD. The formed CLD was further explored with a qualitative approach in the form of an in-depth interview and focus group discussions (FGDs) with several key informants: the Head of the Agronative Cooperative, the Head of Cibodas Village, and the Regency Tourism and Culture Office (Disparbud) of West Bandung. Based on the results of the scenario for the existing conditions for a 24-month period, it was found that the innovation infrastructure variables had increased by 10.94% and the intermediation variables had increased by 0.22%. The simulations were carried out by increasing the intermediation intervention twice as much as that of the existing conditions. Hence, the innovation infrastructure variables increased by 18.01% and the intermediation variables increased by 0.05%. Cibodas village would take advantage of these R & D products to help its creative economy actors produce more products having a high-selling value. Moreover, by employing this strategy, they could also help their creative economy actors increase the absorption of an innovation to have such a high competitiveness.

Web platform for the presentation of academic field trips and traineeships in higher education - agrotourism and public food specialization

The participation of university students in workplace learning programs, which aims to develop their socio-professional skills, is a fundamental activity for their proper insertion into the labor field, after their graduation. A practical approach to all the theoretical knowledge accumulated over the years of study will contribute significantly to the sedimentation, respectively to the acquisition of pragmatic skills, anchored in reality, and frequently requested by every nowadays employer. Traineeships aim to facilitate a context for the application of theoretical knowledge in a professional setting, giving each student the experience of work, responsibility, accountability, and the satisfaction to be able to perform certain tasks by themselves. Carried out to complement the study program, they represent a real springboard for the student in finding a job in a highly challenging economic environment. The traineeship can be carried out in many industries and services, being a mandatory activity, included in the curricula of the bachelor's and master's programs. This paper aims to present a webpage-type application which was created to present and promote the traineeship opportunities within the specialization Engineering and Management in Public Food and Agritourism of the Faculty of Management and Rural Development, University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, Romania (UASVM). All the information and pictures presented on the web page are related to a full license cycle of 4 years, which took place before the 2019 Covid pandemic.

Structural Model of Community Social Capital for Enhancing Rural Communities Adaptation against the COVID-19 Pandemic: Empirical Evidence from Pujon Kidul Tourism Village, Malang Regency, Indonesia

Pujon Kidul Village, Pujon District, Malang Regency, is an area with tourism potential that has been developed since 2017 with the concept of agricultural tourism. Throughout the development of tourism villages, Pujon Kidul Village has succeeded in accelerating economic growth and providing jobs for the community. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism villages have been severely affected, leading to the temporary closure of tourist attractions and community businesses. This research aimed to identify what indicators form social capital variables and the relationship between social capital variables and community adaptation patterns in dealing with pandemics in the study location. This was quantitative research with confirmatory factor analysis to determine the indicators of forming social capital and structural equation modeling analysis to determine the relationship between the variables. Based on the findings, it is known that trust in forming a social network is 0.468. Furthermore, the social network forms community actions of 0.046 and influences community resilience by 0.007. Therefore, good social capital will make it easier for the community to participate in collective action as a form of caring for each other during the pandemic. This action also influences the community to survive in a pandemic crisis, thus creating an adaptation pattern for the Pujon Kidul Tourism Village community in facing a pandemic.

Adaptation strategies amid the pandemic among agri-tourism enterprises in La Union, Philippines

Prior to the pandemic, agri-tourism was on its rise in the Philippines. It is known as a fusion of Agriculture and tourism, linked to other sectors, including hospitality and transportation. However, travel bans and other restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic have adversely affected tourism. This study aimed to describe the pandemic effects on agri-tourism enterprises in the province of La Union, Philippines, and their adaptation strategies. A survey of 16 enterprises was conducted in May 2021. Descriptive and content analysis was employed to analyze the data and information gathered. The pandemic was found to have significantly affected the enterprises' marketing function, resulting in financial losses and adjustments to their business models. Their adaptation strategies were categorized as either survival or sustaining. Survival strategies were the farms' initial coping mechanisms like shifting to a new market, lowered prices, and switching to online marketing. On the other hand, sustaining strategies were also known as long-term solutions like diversification and expansion. The enterprises that adopted both strategies had wider offerings and possessed more than one accreditation. It is recommended that agri-tourism enterprises continue strategizing as the pandemic remains a threat. They should consider employing sustaining strategies for post-pandemic.

Challenges and Sources of Advertising in Agritourism during the Covid-19 Pandemic

With the emergence of the COV1D-19 pandemic, the tourism market faces many challenges, including the Agritourism business. Because of the necessary measures introduced to reduce the spread of the virus, travel and tourist movements have been reduced. Therefore, agritourism is forced to focus its advertising methods on online sources to attract tourist demand for its facilities, products, and services. This paper explores the challenges agritourism has faced in promoting and advertising and how they have adapted to new digital and online advertising opportunities. The paper aims to identify new advertising challenges during the pandemic and analyze the importance of internet sales and security as the most significant attractive factor caused by the pandemic outbreak. The survey was conducted on a sample of 83 holders/owners of Agritourism in the Republic of Croatia. Through empirical research, respondents were offered questions in three thematic units: general data of objects, advertising methods, and content of posts. In order to meet the objectives of the paper, three hypotheses were given. The validation of hypotheses is processed using the statistical method of measurement known as the McNemar's test and descriptive statistics and analysis. The research results indicate the presence of advertising challenges in the new business conditions, the weaker representation of the use of traditional sources of advertising (while online advertising remains without significant changes), the under-representation of internet sales, and security, whose importance is recognized but under-promoted. The contribution of the work is reflected in the presentation of the trend of online advertising as an indispensable tool for attracting more visitors and tourists. At the same time, this topic notices the emergence of new requirements and ways of communication with tourists during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

Sweet success in farm tourism and beekeeping

It is reported that agritourism and beekeeping have weathered the COVID-19 pandemic in the Pacific region to emerge as key strengths of the second phase of the Pacific Agribusiness Research in Development Initiative (PARDI 2). This ACIAR-supported project is mentoring and training farmers, and building capacity for farmer organisations, to develop agribusinesses in the Pacific region. Development of business skills in agritourism and beekeeping is supporting farm business sustainability and profitability. Connecting new and expanding businesses to mentors and advisers is also building knowledge and facilitating industry development.

The Dynamics of Absorptive Capacity in the Context of Rural Tourism in Covid-19 Times: The Case of Rota das Trutas, RS, Brazil.

Rural tourism increasingly awakens the approximation of the rural to the urban by offering a diversified portfolio of attractions that, when organized in the format of tourist routes, strategically articulate current and future ventures. The objective of this wais to analyze the absorptive capacity (CA) in the offer of rural tourism in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Rota das Trutas, located in the municipality of São José dos Ausentes (RS, Brazil). In methodological terms, a qualitative multi-case s was carried out in two projects with an online interview with the owners of the projects and data wad analyzed using the content analysis technique. The results demonstrated the lack of prior knowledge to work in tourism basedon agricultural activities, and new knowledge was accessed through technical assistance, nonetheless assimilation has limitations, and its application could be expanded. As a result of the AC, the fragility of the relationship between the potential AC and the achieved AC resulting from the transmission of internal knowledge by the owners is evident. The COVID-19 pandemic changed the routines and led them to adopt tourist security protocols, culminating in the increase in demand, as well as arousing interest in offering new personalized services and expanding existing ones. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR] O turismo rural desperta cada vez mais a aproximação do rural ao urbano, ao oferecer um diversificado portfólio de atrativos que, quando organizados no formato de roteiros turísticos, articulam estrategicamente empreendimentos atuais e futuros. O objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar a capacidade de absorção (CA) na oferta de turismo rural frente à pandemia COVID-19 na Rota das Trutas, localizada no município de São José dos Ausentes (RS, Brasil). Em termos metodológicos, foi realizado um multicaso qualitativo em dois projetos com uma entrevista online com os proprietários dos projetos e dados analisados através da técnica de análise de conteúdo. Os resultados demonstraram a falta de conhecimento prévio para atuar no turismo com base na atividade agropecuária, e novos conhecimentos foram acessados por meio da assistência técnica, porém a assimilação apresenta limitações e sua aplicação poderia ser ampliada. Como resultado da CA, fica evidente a fragilidade da relação entre a CA potencial e a CA realizada, decorrente da transmissão de conhecimentos internos pelos proprietários. A pandemia COVID-19 mudou as rotinas e levou-os a adotar protocolos de segurança turística, culminando no aumento da demanda, além de despertar o interesse em oferecer novos serviços personalizados e ampliar os existentes. (Portuguese) [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Revista FSA is the property of Revista FSA (Faculdade Santo Agostinho) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Green Designs in Hydraulics—Construction Infrastructures for Safe Agricultural Tourism and Sustainable Sports Tourism Facilities Mitigating Risks of Tourism in Crisis at Post COVID-19 Era

Nowadays, global and local tourism sector is in crisis at post-COVID-19 era. This study presents efficient infrastructure sustainable design facilities that could provide solutions for safe facilities and mobility sustainable services supporting alternative types of tourism like agritourism and sports tourism at mountainous places or close to coasts, mitigating associated risks. A useful roadmap is presented for efficient green circular economy for all in the society should adopt particular effective construction green designs with the proper utilization of green renewable resources and clean technologies support that promote public health protection, avoiding chemical toxic pollutants to the environment. In this way, new opportunities are created for an integrated health policy using proper economic instruments that achieve investments at regional level, generating effective construction design solutions for tourism services, including safe green transportation infrastructures, efficient green hydraulic projects, safe green building facilities with effective hydro-geotechnical designs for public health protection in climate change, energy crisis, food security and global economic crisis at post COVID-19 era. Hence, the concept of green circular economy (CE) has received increasing attention between policymakers and stakeholders worldwide. This work aims to present the importance of useful geo-environmental designs within green construction facilities supporting biofuels and renewable resources production alternative types of tourism. Useful project management geoinformation ICT’s, IoT’s, web g.i.s solutions are necessary that include efficient hydraulic designs, sustainable development, monitoring schemes, associated green tourism infrastructure designs, safe green transportation systems, efficient hydro-geotechnical projects, robust irrigation-drainage designs and green effective logistics in particular tourism services for environmental, public health protection. Moreover, in order to achieve competitive experiencing, safe green travel destinations are necessary protecting public health that are supported by innovative construction designs, reclamation projects for enhancing associative activities within sport tourism, agritourism, cultural sites, ecological places, archaeological geographies, traditional recipes, drinks and heritage monuments. The latter could be combined with proper e-learning, monitoring schemes, training web utilities for stakeholders at sustainable tourism infrastructures and vocational educational useful training utilities. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

The Development of Social Capital during the Process of Starting an Agritourism Business

The role of social capital in the early phases of development of a family business is well documented, but the dynamism of the entrepreneur’s social capital in the agritourism business remains a relatively lesser-studied area. The current research, on an inductive, exploratory, and qualitative basis, aims to uncover the place and role of social capital in the establishment of agritourism enterprise, from concept formation to stabilization. The results of the study highlight the importance of governmental help in finance and networking for launching an enterprise, especially in remote areas where these additional activities are relatively lesser-known. The role of a network is relatively weak in the risk analysis of the business. This fact enhances the vulnerability of enterprises.

Rural Tourism Destination: The Ligurian Farmers’ Perspective

Rural tourism is considered a high potential form of tourism, enhanced by the demand for more sustainable and nature-based solutions, and able to contribute to territory resilience. A rural area is not necessarily a tourist destination, but it might become one, if agricultural enterprises are willing to diversify their economic activities by investing in rural tourism, and local actors provide active support and co-participation. This research focuses on the development of rural tourism in hinterland, mountainous, and hilly areas of the province of Savona in Liguria (North-West of Italy) in order to gather the farmers’ perspectives about local rural tourism destination development. Liguria is known above all as a seaside tourist destination. In recent years, policy makers have initiated a debate with local actors to relaunch Ligurian tourism by trying to develop alternative forms of tourism, such as rural tourism. A sample of 32 farmers already proposing rural tourism activities such as agritourism were involved in a mixed methodological approach aimed at validating local interest toward rural tourism and collecting information for designing future local development policies. At first, a questionnaire set up by a panel of experts was carried out, followed by one-to-one semi-structured interviews, and finally the Nominal Group Technique (NGT) was used to identify local priorities, strategies, and tools. The results highlight the willingness of farmers to invest in the rural tourism sector, the presence of heterogeneous interests, and the complexity of management of the relationship among the various stakeholders. Findings are partially explained by the early stage of development of rural tourism in the analyzed area, a phase in which starting a constructive dialogue on objective and project ideas among all stakeholders seems to be a crucial priority among the farmers taking part in the study.

Factors Related to Profitability of Agritourism in the United States: Results from a National Survey of Operators

Agritourism is a growing area of the tourism sector with many positive social and economic benefits for farmers, their communities, and for tourists. While researchers have been studying the phenomenon for several decades, factors that lead to profitable outcomes for agritourism operators are still not well understood, hindering the effectiveness of agritourism development and the systems of support available to farmers. Using a survey of 1834 farms and ranches open to visitors in the United States, the goal of this study is to identify the factors that influence the profitability of agritourism operations. This study shows that several factors have positive associations with increased agritourism profitability, such as the number of years of experience of the operator, farm scale (acreage and total farm revenue), providing on-farm product sales, and offering events and entertainment. Off-farm product sales and being a female operator have a negative association with profitability in agritourism. We discuss the implications of our findings on agritourism operators, suggest their utility for tourism planning and rural community development professionals, and offer suggestions for future research.

Effects of agritourism businesses' strategies to cope with the COVID-19 crisis: The key role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) behaviours.

Evidence of the effects of tourism businesses' strategies to mitigate the negative impacts of the COVID-19 crisis remains remarkably scarce. Drawing on the system resilience framework, this study suggests a model in which corporate social responsibility (CSR) behaviours encompassing five dimensions - community, employees, environment, heritage and products - and co-creation experience mediate the relationships between strategies and performance. Applying partial least squares structural equation modeling to a sample of 199 agritourism businesses in Italy, this study finds that proactive strategies have a positive effect on performance and that this effect is fully mediated by CSR and co-creation experience. Reactive strategies have both a negative direct effect and a positive mediated effect on performance. Hence, the strategies positively affect performance only if they first contribute to the resilience of the local system through CSR behaviours, enhancing the resources needed for tourism experience co-creation. This analysis emphasises the impacts of the community, environmental and heritage dimensions of CSR behaviours.