Sustainable Agro Tourism: A Case Study of “Farm of Happiness”

Introduction

Agro-tourism is mainly practiced in relatively isolated areas with a diversified agricultural vocation, requiring the assurance of necessities to survive by one’s forces or where there is a deep specialization, creating monopoly positions concerning the production of certain valued and requested food products (Hao & Xiao, 2021; Stokowski et al., 2021). Agro-tourism is situated spatially in rural areas and is thus completely incorporated into rural tourism (Degarege & Lovelock, 2021). In addition to being a tourist alternative, rural tourism and agro-tourism are important factors in the economic growth of the rural area as a whole and agricultural exploitation (Samsudin & Maliki, 2015).

There is a whole-to-part between rural tourism and agro-tourism, where agro-tourism is one of the components of rural tourism (Kaptan Ayhan et al., 2020). Agro-tourism was chosen for this study for many reasons (Hanafiah et al., 2021). First, tourism has become one of the fastest-growing industries globally, with the increasing importance and growing diversity of rural tourism within this segment (Hao & Xiao, 2021). Second, agro-tourism faces numerous challenges: rapid cost increases, irregular rainfall, and conservation and urbanization difficulties (D’Arco et al., 2021). Third, agro-tourism is still in its early stages, with many issues, including uncomfortable accommodation for the guest, poor transportation at the location, and unorganized management (Alonso-Fradejas, 2021). Finally, agro-tourism generates jobs, helps local and regional economies expand by boosting the standard of life of individual households and the revenues of local businesses, and serves as an ‘instrument for poverty alleviation, particularly in developing nations (Cheng & Xu, 2021).

Considering these issues, our research aids farmers, and other agricultural professionals in three ways: First, assessing the relevance of organic farming and bringing new business ideas. Second, the economic impact of agro-tourism on rural communities. Finally, the importance of cultural landscape in an agro-tourism project. As a result, the current study will address two research questions: (1) How can a cultural landscape and organic agriculture contribute to the success of an agro-tourism project? (2) How might an agro-tourism project contribute to the indigenous people’s economic development? We addressed the research questions in three phases. First and foremost, we did a thorough assessment of the literature to explain prior agro-tourism research. Second, we utilized a case study to illustrate the agro-tourism potential of an organic farm. Finally, we’ve documented the novel concepts that make the project successful. The study makes three significant contributions:

• 1.

  This is the first study to include organic farming practices and cultural landscapes into agro-tourism. Thus, our work contributed to the literature on agro-tourism.

• 2.

  Our findings demonstrate the value of creative ideas to the hospitality and tourist industries.

• 3.

  Our results suggest that rural youth (farmers or individuals) should understand the value of organic agriculture and cultural landscapes, especially in the hospitality business.

The rest of the paper is arranged in the following order. Segment 2 is an overview of the literature on agro-tourism. Segment 3 discusses the background of the 'Farm of Happiness'. In segment 4, we demonstrate the project's creative nature. Finally, in segment 5, we provide a discussion and conclusion, outlining the implications, limits, and future directions.