Value-added potentials in farm tourism and alpine summer-farm tourism. Competitive
factors, success factors and challenges. A strategic overview.
Tourism is an important potential diversification strategy in agriculture. Little research has, however, been done on farm tourism and on how competitive farms and alpine summer farms that offer accommodation, catering and/or special experiences and edutainment are. This paper aims to shed light on the value-added potential and competitive factors in (alpine summer) farm tourism. It is based upon literature research as well as on the presentations and “world café” results of a workshop in Scuol, Switzerland, in February 2010.
This overview focuses primarily on strategic planning. In the first part, the economic importance of farm tourism in Switzerland and neighbouring countries is described. In a second step, competitive factors are explored, as well as their impact on the valorisation of the potential for (alpine summer) farm tourism. The following section draws some practical conclusions and makes recommendations for developing and implementing a farm tourism project. Finally, some contact addresses for operative planning and references are listed.