THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF AGRITOURISM ON RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Chara Kottara, Apostolos Zaridis, Maria Lagou

Abstract


Agritourism is increasingly gaining traction, fostering a dynamic linkage between agriculture, tourism, localized systems, and rural entrepreneurship. Particularly in developing economies, where rural communities frequently contend with income volatility, deficient infrastructure, youth out-migration, and constrained market access, agritourism is recognized as a vital mechanism for complementary development. It achieves this by diversifying agricultural revenue, generating substantial employment and reinforcing local identity. This study delivers a systematic literature review examining the economic impacts of agritourism and its role in broader rural development, focusing explicitly on developing nations and emerging rural destinations. Synthesizing research from prominent databases, including Scopus and Google Scholar, this review spans the 2012–2025 period and employs a structured coding protocol to classify existing literature by region and methodology. The findings demonstrate that agritourism drives income diversification, employment generation, and entrepreneurship within both agricultural holdings and small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Additionally, it facilitates the direct marketing of agriproducts and enhances the retention of tourism expenditure within local economies. However, the realization of these multiplier benefits hinges on the robustness of agriculture-tourism linkages, localized sourcing, infrastructure quality, community engagement, and institutional governance capacity. Conversely, prominent barriers were identified, including seasonality, workforce skill deficits, a paucity of digital visibility, restricted access to public and private financing, fragmented policy coordination, and the inequitable distribution of socio-economic benefits. To address these gaps, this research contributes a policy-oriented framework alongside a forward-looking research agenda that advocates for rigorous impact assessments, longitudinal analyses, and cross-regional comparative studies.

Keywords


agritourism, rural development, developing countries, economic impact, farm diversification, sustainable development

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejefr.v10i7.2329

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