Agritourism Accommodation and the Revaluation of the Local Agrifood Product in the Context of Global Change

Abstract

Faced with the current challenges of the climate emergency and global change, the revaluation of local products, their knowledge, consumption, and distribution is emerging as one of the strategic actions aimed at reducing the carbon footprint. Agritourism, as an activity that values everything that is related to the agricultural heritage and that enables direct contact between visitor and farmer, contributes to positioning and strengthening the local agrifood product in tourist destination areas and becomes another link in the production chains, promoting direct sales and the short distribution circuit of the products. This research aims to measure the presence of the local agrifood product in the context of agritourism developed in the Western Catalan Pyrenees (Spain). To do this, it analyses the presence of the local product and the ways used to incorporate it into the travel experience. It explores (through interviews) the opinions of the owners of agritourism farms/businesses in relation to the repercussions of the producer–consumer connection through food. To reach this goal, secondary sources are reviewed—bibliographical, statistics, and web pages—and a total of 26 interviews are carried out. In terms of the results, we highlight that in the Western Catalan Pyrenees, about 70% of agritourism accommodations include local products in their offer. Additionally, the professional project is strengthened by including the agrifood product in the offer’s structure through catering and/or direct sale, generating positive dynamics among the rest of the producers in the area. However, only a small percentage of agritourism accommodations fully diversify their project with the production, consumption, and distribution of their own and local food. A total of four different profiles of agritourism are identified regarding agrifood products.