From subsistence to something special: The rise of luxury agritourism

Most farm­ers through­out his­tory have struggled to sur­vive let alone thrive. This remains the case in many places. 

That’s why the oppor­tun­ity to earn sup­ple­ment­al income from agri­t­our­ism is very appeal­ing to many farmers.

Now, while agri­t­our­ism con­tin­ues to grow, the concept of ‘lux­ury’ is evolving to include an appre­ci­ation of loc­al authenticity. 

Could the world’s tra­di­tion­al agri­cul­tur­ists be sit­ting on a lux­ury agri­t­our­ism gold mine?

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight by Stefania Fren.

[You too can write a “GT” Insight.]

Agri­t­our­ism is not a new trend, but it is evolving; devel­op­ing new forms, new mar­kets, and new objectives.

Agritourism’s ini­tial pur­pose, in the peri­od fol­low­ing the second World War, was to reduce the massive flow of European pop­u­la­tions from rur­al vil­lages to the big urb­an centres, and to help smal­ler farms com­pete with lar­ger indus­tri­al farms. In oth­er words, to keep the rur­al activ­ity alive. 

With its roots in the rur­al areas of Italy, the term agrit­ur­ismo or ‘agri­t­our­ism’ gained prom­in­ence in the 1970s and 1980s. 

Don’t miss oth­er “Good Tour­ism” posts tagged ‘Rur­al tour­ism and agritourism’

The Itali­an gov­ern­ment real­ised the bene­fits of agri­t­our­ism in eco­nom­ic, social, and envir­on­ment­al terms. In 1985 it passed legis­la­tion that provided sig­ni­fic­ant fisc­al incent­ives for this type of sus­tain­able tourism. 

Agri­t­our­ism has laid the found­a­tions to help revital­ise rur­al com­munit­ies and pre­serve loc­al cus­toms while offer­ing trav­el­lers a taste of tra­di­tion­al coun­try life; a real win-win! 

The term ‘agri­t­our­ism’ has become com­monly used out­side of Italy and has gained in pop­ular­ity in almost every corner of the globe. 

What is agritourism?

The term has vari­ous defin­i­tions. Accord­ing to the Food and Agri­cul­ture Organ­iz­a­tion, agri­t­our­ism refers to “the sym­bi­ot­ic rela­tion­ship between tour­ism and agri­cul­ture”. 

It is also known as ‘farm tour­ism’, ‘farm stays’, or ‘farm holidays’. 

This type of lodging offers trav­el­lers the oppor­tun­ity to par­ti­cip­ate in the inner work­ings of a farm, learn about a territory’s his­tory and cul­ture, and build a strong con­nec­tion with nature with­in a farm, winery, or ranch. 

For example, at the Margi — where I am an intern — a five-star boutique hotel and farm in a rur­al area on the out­skirts of Athens, Greece, vis­it­ors can par­ti­cip­ate in farm activ­it­ies, such as tend­ing to live­stock and harvesting. 

Oth­er related activ­it­ies that one can exper­i­ence at the Margi include vis­it­ing olive groves and vine­yards, tast­ing their respect­ive products, and enjoy­ing sump­tu­ous meals pre­pared with loc­ally-sourced ingredients. 

In gen­er­al, dur­ing their stay at an agri­t­our­ism facil­it­at­or, guests have the oppor­tun­ity to learn more about loc­al agri­cul­ture and its reli­ance on the sus­tain­ab­il­ity of the envir­on­ment and the reg­u­lar­ity of annu­al weath­er patterns.

What types of agritourism are there?

Vari­ous types of agri­t­our­ism have been iden­ti­fied (e.g. in Italy) based on the type and intens­ity of tour­ist par­ti­cip­a­tion, while oth­er forms are con­tinu­ously emerging. 

Agri­t­our­ism cat­egor­ies of exper­i­ence include:

• Non-work­ing farms;
• Work­ing farms with pass­ive contact;
• Work­ing farms with indir­ect contact; 
• Work­ing farms with dir­ect con­tact (staged); and
• Work­ing farms with dir­ect con­tact (authen­t­ic).

Addi­tion­ally, agri­t­our­ism can be cat­egor­ised accord­ing to the type of accom­mod­a­tion offered, such as hol­i­day farm resort, farm­house bed-and-break­fast, basic camp­ing, and ‘glamp­ing’ (glam­or­ous camping). 

And, of course, the agri­t­our­ism exper­i­ence will be hugely affected by where it is loc­ated — moun­tains, plains, coast, the size of the rur­al com­munity, and its prox­im­ity to urb­an centres — and the type of agriculture.

Each type of agri­t­our­ism offer­ing makes its own con­tri­bu­tions, both pos­it­ive and poten­tially neg­at­ive, to the rur­al host com­munity, the loc­al envir­on­ment, and to the evol­u­tion of this travel trend. 

Why is agritourism trending? 

Agri­t­our­ism offers great advant­ages to vis­it­ors, farm­ers, and rur­al com­munit­ies:

• Away from mass tour­ist spots, guests can enjoy rel­at­ively afford­able accom­mod­a­tions, loc­al food, and warm hos­pit­al­ity, and (for a brief peri­od) become a part of an authen­t­ic vil­lage community. 
• The change of pace, out­doors-ori­ent­a­tion, and phys­ic­al­ity of agri­t­our­ism provides vis­it­ors with health and well­ness bene­fits, espe­cially for city-based visitors.
• Vis­it­ors have the oppor­tun­ity to learn and exper­i­ence new things, par­tic­u­larly around cul­ture and lifestyle.
• Vis­it­ing chil­dren (and adults) can take away some import­ant les­sons about where their food comes from, the import­ance of envir­on­ment­al sus­tain­ab­il­ity and anim­al wel­fare, and the chal­lenges and rewards of farming.
• Agri­t­our­ism can provide a valu­able source of income for farm­ers; a chance for them to par­ti­cip­ate in the value-added ter­tiary (ser­vice) sec­tor of the eco­nomy in addi­tion to their vital role in the primary sec­tor of the economy.
• In addi­tion to the eco­nom­ic bene­fits for farm­ers, agri­t­our­ism can stim­u­late the broad­er loc­al eco­nomy through great­er expendit­ure on oth­er loc­al goods and ser­vices by vis­it­ors and farmers. 
• By show­cas­ing to vis­it­ors the import­ance of agri­cul­ture to not only rur­al com­munit­ies but also how it is a vital sup­port to cit­ies, agri­t­our­ism can play a sig­ni­fic­ant role in the pre­ser­va­tion of rur­al cul­ture and heritage. 

As it gradu­ally devel­ops, agri­t­our­ism is boom­ing in pop­ular­ity espe­cially in the post-pan­dem­ic peri­od with trav­el­lers not only seek­ing authen­t­ic exper­i­ences, but also con­sciously choos­ing envir­on­ment­ally- and socially-respons­ible tourism. 

Luxury agritourism: A contradiction? 

“Lux­ury, by defin­i­tion, means some­thing that appears to be the best of whatever it represents …”

Isad­ore Sharp, founder, chair, and CEO of Four Sea­sons Hotels & Resorts. 

‘Lux­ury’ is gen­er­ally asso­ci­ated with very expens­ive items and exclus­ive, private ser­vices. These are usu­ally under­stood to include branded goods; first-class travel; private jets, yachts, vil­las, and beaches; fine din­ing exper­i­ences; and so on. 

Nowadays, the concept of lux­ury is not as strongly asso­ci­ated with such things. Wealthy trav­el­lers are increas­ingly choos­ing out-of-the-ordin­ary ‘lux­ury’ exper­i­ences. 

Today’s lux­ury trav­el­ler has a great­er under­stand­ing of the intan­gible and imma­ter­i­al dimen­sions of lux­ury. They increas­ingly seek things that money can­not buy. They want ‘authen­t­ic’ per­son­al­ised experiences. 

As a res­ult, lux­ury cus­tom­ers — more mature and demand­ing than ever — are search­ing for new con­cepts in lux­ury accom­mod­a­tion and exper­i­ences. They don’t just want to see, they want to participate! 

This has implic­a­tions for travel, tour­ism, and hos­pit­al­ity ser­vice pro­viders, includ­ing those who would offer agri­t­our­ism experiences. 

There are lux­ury hotels in Greece, for example, that offer trav­el­lers the chance to con­nect with the land and the loc­al people, learn about the coun­try’s rich his­tory and cul­ture, and get a good taste of the region­al gast­ro­nomy and loc­al customs. 

The Margi Hotel is a good example of lux­ury agri­t­our­ism in Greece. Affil­i­ated with Margi Farm, it provides vis­it­ors with a lux­ury agri­t­our­ism exper­i­ence that fea­tures organ­ic loc­al pro­duce, authen­t­ic loc­al cuisine, and per­son­al­ised private tours and experiences. 

Margi Hotel’s guest rela­tions man­ager Afrod­iti Solomou told me that the hotel’s guests are mod­ern lux­ury trav­el­lers who seek authen­ti­city in region­al cuisine, inter­ac­tions with loc­al staff and people, and nat­ur­al sur­round­ings. They want a mem­or­able escape from the urb­an set­ting; hol­ist­ic exper­i­ences that blend sens­ory and spir­itu­al luxury.

The exclus­ive com­bin­a­tion of com­fort and a con­nec­tion with the land is what makes lux­ury agri­t­our­ism a highly sought-after exper­i­ence for some wealthy travellers. 

It is true that new travel trends are emer­ging all the time. 

With agri­t­our­ism we wait to see what oth­er forms it will take in the future, and wheth­er it will con­tin­ue to rise as a high-value lux­ury tour­ism niche. 

Author’s note: My thanks to Afrod­iti Solomou whom I inter­viewed while research­ing the paper that is the basis for this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. And thanks to every­one at Margi Hotel and Margi Farm for the mem­or­able intern­ship experience.

Fea­tured image (top of post): Lux­ury agri­t­our­ism with free-range chick­ens at Margi Farm, Greece. Images sup­plied by Stefania Fren.

About the author

Stefania Fren is Mas­ter­’s stu­dent in Events and Tour­ism at SKEMA Busi­ness School, France. Ms Fren is inter­ested in high-end hos­pit­al­ity and events.