Sustainable Marketing of Agro-Tourism: The Socio-cultural Perspective

Year 2024, Volume: 9 Issue: 3, 320 - 345, 27.11.2024

Deepak Chhabra , Cary Dewland

https://doi.org/10.31201/ijhmt.1557458

Abstract

Agricultural tourism has emerged as a niche tourism phenomenon and its demand has soared
across the globe. This paper focuses on the socio-cultural sustainability of agro-tourism. Key
socio-cultural dimensions, social capital and authenticity, are examined based on a purposeful
sample of spatially dispersed farms in the US. The study results illustrate that agrotourism holds
tremendous potential to strengthen and promote local food systems by promoting traditional
ways of farming, particularly objective and negotiated dimensions of authenticity, social
cohesion, trust and reciprocity. Marketing strategies promoting socio-cultural consumption of
agro-tourism are suggested.

Keywords

authenticity, social capital, sustainability, agro-tourism, and farms

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