Exploring New Opportunities for Agritourism in the Post-COVID-19 Era

Abstract

COVID-19 has exerted a tremendous impact on tourism and hospitality businesses. Agritourism is no exception, and the impacts have been both negative and positive concerning the activity of agricultural production. Online direct selling of farm products is a good example of a positive outcome and has contributed to the resilience of agritourism, compensating for the revenue drop from tourism activity. This aspect is unique to agritourism farms. Since COVID-19 stimulated new activity, it is necessary to nurture skills that take advantage of these emerging opportunities in the post-COVID-19 era. Further, we must explore innovative avenues, such as rural e-hospitality, preventive medical effects, and compatible entrepreneurship between those engaged in individual agritourism and community-based tourism. For this purpose, we need to accumulate empirical evidence on these preventive medical effects provided by agritourism in the future.