Leveraging Agritourism for Rural Development

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Economics, Policies and Rural Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 October 2024 | Viewed by 719

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Geography, University of Barcelona, 08001 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: rural geography; regional geography; post-productivism agriculture; food, environment and development; gastronomy; landscape’s perception

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Guest Editor
Department of Geography, University of Barcelona, 08001 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: rural geography; regional geography; rural tourism; heritage; agritourism

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Guest Editor
Department of Geography, University of Barcelona, C/Montalegre, 6, 08001 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: geography; tourism; environmental global change; rural areas; regional geography
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the countries of the global North, the rural world has ceased to be a set of spaces predominantly utilized for production and has become an area in which traditional production processes are combined with increasingly significant consumer trends. As a result of these new demands, a set of activities that exemplify the syncretism of both approaches has appeared, particularly since the mid-1950s; this can be defined by the term agritourism.

This SI seeks contributions that consider agrotourism as a tool in the development of rural areas. Works from different disciplines (Geography, History, Economics, Sociology, Political Science, etc.) that converge in this transversal and integrative subject are welcome.

Among other possibilities, this SI seeks contributions on topics including, but not limited to, the following:

  • the impact of tourist accommodation on the income of the agricultural farms involved;
  • new business approaches that include agritourism activities in companies and cooperatives;
  • the territorial significance of agritourism in a broad sense (fairs, markets, museums, etc.);
  • the territorial and business brand images worked on by the sector;
  • the environmental challenges and uncertainties that are associated with agritourism in a scenario of global change.

Articles that present general reflections on this set of activities, as well as case study analyses, will be considered in this SI.

Dr. Xosé Antón Armesto-López
Dr. Martí Cors-Iglesias
Dr. M. Belén Gómez Martín
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • farming tourism
  • rural branding
  • rural complementarity
  • local products
  • ecological footprint

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

23 pages, 4443 KiB  
Article
Visualizing a Sustainable Future in Rural Romania: Agrotourism and Vernacular Architecture
by Raul-Cătălin Oltean, Carl T. Dahlman and Felix-Horatiu Arion
Agriculture 2024, 14(8), 1219; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14081219 - 24 Jul 2024
Viewed by 355
Abstract
In Romania, rural communities grapple with decades of depopulation and economic decline, endangering the natural and cultural richness of their landscapes. The implementation of Romania’s 2030 sustainable development plan presents an opportunity to reverse these trends by merging economic and community development with [...] Read more.
In Romania, rural communities grapple with decades of depopulation and economic decline, endangering the natural and cultural richness of their landscapes. The implementation of Romania’s 2030 sustainable development plan presents an opportunity to reverse these trends by merging economic and community development with cultural preservation. This paper examines the potential for creating new livelihood opportunities through a program that integrates sustainable agrotourism with culturally appropriate vernacular architecture in Romania’s distinct rural regions. Focusing on two such regions characterized by significant rural population decline yet endowed with ecological services capable of supporting a diverse rural economy, we collaborated with an architect and landscape engineer to devise three specific and detailed agritourist housing scenarios. These scenarios draw upon local architectural forms harmonious with the vernacular landscape, providing accommodations for agrotourism guests and facilitating craft workshops for visitors interested in rural crafts and traditions. We evaluated the cultural appropriateness of the architectural designs through a social survey and assessed the broader social utility of the development plan via an expansive cost–benefit analysis, treating the project’s sustainability features as quasi-public goods. Such interdisciplinary endeavours are essential for effectively bridging conceptually driven social analysis with pragmatic design and planning strategies, essential for achieving sustainable futures for rural communities and landscapes, as exemplified by rural Romania. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Leveraging Agritourism for Rural Development)
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