A Ticket to Coffee: Stakeholder View and Theoretical Framework of Coffee Tourism Benefits

Abstract

This study is focused on the issue of agritourism in developing countries, which is a growing phenomenon and an understudied topic by the academic literature. By developing an investigation on coffee tourism based on multiple stakeholder perspectives around the subject, we contribute to further the debate over potentialities and benefits of coffee tourism development. We applied grounded theory methodology and through an iterated process involving literature review, a case study on Costa Rica, interviews with coffee experts, and a survey with European tourists, we designed a theoretical framework of the benefits that coffee tourism can have on both local farmers, who are vulnerable and lowpower stakeholders within the coffee supply chain, and on actual and potential coffee tourists. Our research pointed out that empowerment and cooperation, business diversification, sustainability, and creation of a destination image are the four main benefits for the local communities of farmers and their families and are also perceived to be creating favorable and attracting conditions for tourists.

Institutional barriers to coffee tourism development: insights from Ethiopia – the birthplace of coffee

“…Research undertaken in a number of destinations confirms a range of benefits of coffee tourism, beyond employment, including business diversification, empowerment of local communities of coffee farmers and their families, enhanced destination image and broader outcomes of sustainability (Candelo et al, 2019). In Ethiopia, the role of coffee tourism has been advocated as means of biodiversity conservation and sustaining the gene pool of wild Arabica coffee (Woyesa and Kumar, 2020).…”

“…In some destinations, substantial tourism development has resulted from a focus on such a single product. In South Korea, for example, tea-related tourism [similar in principle to coffee tourism (Candelo et al, 2019)] initiatives include tea tours, a tea festival and even a resort town (Suh and MacPherson, 2007).…”

“…While the demand for coffee tourism has been documented and the associated range of benefits demonstrated (Casalegno et al, 2020;Hasyim et al, 2020), it is also acknowledged that in many aspiring or operational coffee tourism destinations, this potential has yet to be fully realised. This has been attributed to a range of destination image issues, and policy, investment and coordination problems (Anbalagan and Lovelock, 2014;Candelo et al, 2019) that we may broadly consider under the umbrella of governance. Vanneste and Ryckaert (2012) observe that in practice, central governance in tourism is often quite weak.…”

Slow tourism, una oportunitat per a la transformació del turisme?

“…Aquesta relació entre turisme, producció alimentària i gastronomia, que permet una reorganització de les pràctiques turístiques a partir del moviment slow ha estat identificada en diferents contextos. Així s'han destacat experiències com les del turisme vinculat al coneixement i consum de productes alimentaris com el cafè en contextos tan diferents com Costa Rica (Candelo, 2019), El Salvador (Cañada, 2017), Indonèsia o Etiòpia (Woyesa, 2020), en els quals s'identifiquen evidències positives en termes de diversificació i complementarietat d'ingressos, obertura de nous mercats per a la comercialització de la producció de cafè i la conservació dels recursos naturals. Però probablement l'enoturisme, i en particular l'experiència desenvolupada a Catalunya, pugui servir com a exemple virtuós de les potencialitats d'un turisme slow que centra la seva atenció en la cultura del vi i el cava.…”

Ouverture de ‘CSR and Multi-Stakeholder Management’

“…Stakeholders operating at the upper end of the supply chain as farmer suppliers, which have been suffering from a condition of lower power and higher dependency on the firm's resources and decisions for long time are, increasingly, the target of corporate strategic activities to empower and ultimately engage them (Civera, 2018). The aim is to turn powerless stakeholders into individuals able to create and trade value on their own as active and responsible partners of the company (Candelo et al, 2019;Candelo et al, 2018). Many are the evidences coming especially from long and complex supply chains, such as that of coffee (Cerutti & Büchi, 2018).…”