AGRICULTURAL NEWS - Agritourism can offer farmers an ideal avenue for diversifying their agricultural enterprises while earning additional income. In a four-part series, Julinda Schroeder examines the advantages and disadvantages of establishing a tourism venture on a farm, as well as the legal, health and safety, and business aspects of such an enterprise.
Government identified tourism as one of the six core pillars of economic growth in South Africa in its 2010 New Growth Plan.
Since 1994, foreign tourist numbers to the country have grown from three million in 1994 to a high of 9,9 million in 2009, according to the Department of Tourism.
It is estimated that the tourism sector’s direct contribution to the economy is approximately R67 billion per annum, or 3% of the GDP, thus surpassing gold exports as SA’s top foreign currency earner.
In government’s new Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP2), tourism is also acknowledged as one of the sectors expected to greatly contribute towards the development of rural areas.
As a subsector of rural tourism, agritourism provides an avenue for farmers to diversify their farming operations.
This can ultimately become an effective catalyst in rural development and income generation, by offering an alternative use of agricultural resources and creating job opportunities for local communities, while contributing to the revitalisation of the rural economy.
In his 2007 research paper, “Planting the seeds for a new industry in Arkansas: agritourism”, published by the National Center for Agricultural Law Research and Information in Arkansas, HM Pittman states, “Agritourism is a form of commercial enterprise that merges tourism and agriculture by selling the experience of being on a farm, attracting visitors to a farm in order to sell farm products, or a combination of these concepts.”
In her 2012 master’s dissertation, “The benefits of agritourism: two case studies in the Western Cape”, Chantelle van Niekerk emphasises the benefits of agritourism, and explains that it is a “diversification option, which could assist in creating jobs for the vulnerable and unemployed farm community, while at the same time creating financial incentives to the farmer”.
She also writes that agritourism creates a refuge for urban dwellers by allowing visitors to reconnect with their food, and the farmers that produce it. In the current economic climate in SA, there is increasing pressure on the agricultural sector to produce food efficiently, as a result of economic, and environmental factors such as climate change.
Against this backdrop, current farming enterprises are not providing adequate employment opportunities for farmworkers and their families in rural areas.
Since 1994, foreign tourist numbers to the country have grown from three million in 1994 to a high of 9,9 million in 2009, according to the Department of Tourism.
It is estimated that the tourism sector’s direct contribution to the economy is approximately R67 billion per annum, or 3% of the GDP, thus surpassing gold exports as SA’s top foreign currency earner.
In government’s new Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP2), tourism is also acknowledged as one of the sectors expected to greatly contribute towards the development of rural areas.
As a subsector of rural tourism, agritourism provides an avenue for farmers to diversify their farming operations.
This can ultimately become an effective catalyst in rural development and income generation, by offering an alternative use of agricultural resources and creating job opportunities for local communities, while contributing to the revitalisation of the rural economy.
In his 2007 research paper, “Planting the seeds for a new industry in Arkansas: agritourism”, published by the National Center for Agricultural Law Research and Information in Arkansas, HM Pittman states, “Agritourism is a form of commercial enterprise that merges tourism and agriculture by selling the experience of being on a farm, attracting visitors to a farm in order to sell farm products, or a combination of these concepts.”
In her 2012 master’s dissertation, “The benefits of agritourism: two case studies in the Western Cape”, Chantelle van Niekerk emphasises the benefits of agritourism, and explains that it is a “diversification option, which could assist in creating jobs for the vulnerable and unemployed farm community, while at the same time creating financial incentives to the farmer”.
She also writes that agritourism creates a refuge for urban dwellers by allowing visitors to reconnect with their food, and the farmers that produce it. In the current economic climate in SA, there is increasing pressure on the agricultural sector to produce food efficiently, as a result of economic, and environmental factors such as climate change.
Against this backdrop, current farming enterprises are not providing adequate employment opportunities for farmworkers and their families in rural areas.
