Success Factors in the Development of Farm Vacation Tourism

A high level of uncertainty has for many years characterized the world agricultural market. In this unpredictable environment rural tourism remains one of the few viable economic options for rural communities (Fesenmaier et al., 1995). Although in some cases the generated profit is only a small-side income (Oppermann, 1996) the social value of farm tourism displays a variety of qualitative benefits both for farmers and for guests. As a mutual learning experience (Ingram, 2002), farmers have the possibility to share their abilities with guests and affirming, in this way, their role as loyal partners in the food chain; at the same time customers recall their memory of the past (a past of more genuine food and of forgotten tastes) and also rediscover their food traditions. Despite the fact that a wide body of literature in rural and agri-tourism already exists, there is a need for organized research on a particular form of it namely farm vacation tourism2. Our main effort was to apply an analysis of success factors to the panorama of German farm tourism in order to extrapolate the key components that have helped rural entrepreneurs to successfully develop this type of tourism.