Assessing Managerial Efficiency of Educational Tourism in Agriculture: Case of Dairy Farms in Japan

The development of the tourism sector has been a question of strategic importance for Hungary, a small, open economy with limited natural resources. At the same time, these efforts often generate considerable environmental conflicts, decreasing the sustainability of the environment. To understand the potential methods of sustainable tourism development, and to develop the optimal policy, it is essential to clarify the actors, their systems of interest and the potential ways of forging coalitions between them. The article presents an analysis of two case studies of rural tourism development: the "softening" of tourism at the most important touristic attraction in Hungary, Lake Balaton; and the conflicts arising from wine tourism development. Based on institutional economics, principle-agent theory and strategic management, and applying the MACTOR method, the authors identify the key actors, present the network of their mutual influences and goals, determine the most important conflicts and highlight the potential coalitions between them from the point of view of sustainable rural tourism development, as well as ways to further develop the regulatory environment. Based on this analysis, the article proves: (1) the importance of the modernization and reorganization of the public administration structure, focusing on optimal utilization of resources, as opposed to attaching to traditions; (2) the importance of forming clusters of different partners; (3) the strengthening of the knowledge base of decisions concerning sustainable tourism management; and (4) increasing conscious planning, based on the inclusion of different interest groups and long-term prognoses in local decision making, minimises the environmental burden of tourism.

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“…This is in line with the approach of Ohe Y. [91] who has proven that rural tourism can be an important actor in education.…”

Section: Wine Tourism Development and Sustainabilitysupporting

confidence: 86%

Building Coalitions for a Diversified and Sustainable Tourism: Two Case Studies from Hungary

et al. 2018

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“…Although understudied, scholars suggest that agritourism may also serve as a way to engage consumers in ways that further contribute to sustainable LFS. Several studies have consistently shown that agritourism operators are strongly motivated to educate visitors about agricultural systems (McGehee, Kim, and Jennings 2007; Ohe 2017, 2018; Tew and Barbieri 2012). Some consumer studies, although to a lesser extent, indicated that visitors are motivated to engage in agritourism to learn about agriculture and local foods (Xu et al 2014).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Agritourism Experiences on Consumer Behavior toward Local Food

Brune

Knollenberg

Stevenson

et al. 2020

Journal of Travel Research

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Agritourism—visiting a working farm for education or recreation—may serve as a tool to increase local food consumption as it often includes opportunities to purchase local food on-site. Yet, the influence of agritourism on consumers’ local food purchasing behavior remains underexplored. Thus, this study measures the impact of agritourism experiences on consumers’ intentions to purchase local food. To do so, visitors were surveyed at six agritourism farms with similar agritourism activities (e.g., U-pick, educational displays, and on-site market) located across North Carolina (USA) before (pre) and after (post) their visits ( n = 328). Data, collected during the 2018–2019 peak agritourism season, were analyzed using repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance. Findings indicate that agritourism experiences effectively increase consumers’ intentions to purchase local food. These findings advance the scholarship of agritourism. They also provide useful information to design effective marketing campaigns to promote the purchase and consumption of local food and strengthen local agricultural systems.

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“…However, these studies have prevalently concerned traditional accommodation (e.g., hotels) rather than agritourism or, more generally, rural tourism. Recently, Ohe [41] estimated efficiency in Japanese dairy farms that provide educational tourism. Using a DEA approach, the author evaluated the managerial efficiency of educational dairy farms taking into account both provision of milk produced and educational tourism.…”

Section: Of 15mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Basically, this occurs because the term "rural tourism" has taken over in recent decades. A common opinion is, however, that agritourism and rural tourism are intended to be different concepts, with agritourism representing a sub-sample of rural tourism [33,41].…”

Section: Agritourism Definition and Some Data On Italian Agritourismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recreational Services Provision and Farm Diversification: A Technical Efficiency Analysis on Italian Agritourism

et al. 2019

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Recreational functions are among the most important practices to improve farmers’ income and to promote sustainability in the rural territories. Two crucial issues are the ability to rationally allocate farm resources and the ability to efficiently produce different sorts of food and non-food goods. Possible cost savings due to the co-presence of different activities can generate positive effects in the creation of value by agritourist farmers. This paper aims to investigate technical efficiency related to agritourism and recreational functions in Sardinia. Based on a sample of 37 farms and using a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach, we aim to estimate the technical efficiency of double attitude processes, such as those that characterise agritourism practices. Our findings suggest that efficiency can improve if technical inputs are adequately used; however, the scale appears to be close enough to optimal. Furthermore, we estimated that the margins for improving the efficiency are larger for recreational services and that technical factors contribute to efficiency with a different magnitude. Furthermore, we estimated whether agricultural and non-agricultural resources are efficiently allocated. To our knowledge, this is one of the first attempts in Europe at using an efficiency analysis in agritourism.

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Assessing Managerial Efficiency of Educational Tourism in Agriculture: Case of Dairy Farms in Japan

Cited by 21 publications

References 72 publications

Building Coalitions for a Diversified and Sustainable Tourism: Two Case Studies from Hungary

Building Coalitions for a Diversified and Sustainable Tourism: Two Case Studies from Hungary

The Influence of Agritourism Experiences on Consumer Behavior toward Local Food

Recreational Services Provision and Farm Diversification: A Technical Efficiency Analysis on Italian Agritourism

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