Customer Satisfaction with Farmhouse Facilities and Its Implications for the Promotion of Agritourism Resources in Italian Municipalities

Abstract

The importance of a website as a distribution and promotional channel in the context of the tourism sector is increasingly relevant. Despite this, the availability of online reviews referring to agritourism resources is very rarely addressed in academic literature. This study investigates visitor satisfaction with farmhouses on the basis of online reviews available on the official websites of 397 farmhouses with educational farms associated with the Agritourism.it organization. Visitor satisfaction is important for successful destination marketing as it influences destination selection and the consumption of products and services. This study’s findings provide insights for consumers and agritourism operators with the aim of matching customer expectations to the types of agritourism on offer in Italian municipalities. On the demand side, according to the overall satisfaction with the specific characteristics of farmhouses as expressed by 10,864 visitors, the results of a Principal Component Analysis showed that the activities and facilities present in the surrounding natural and cultural areas of the farmhouses are the attributes with the highest visitor satisfaction scores. In contrast, on the supply side, the results of a Hierarchical Cluster Analysis showed different groups of farmhouses characterized by “homogenous” features and by a “homogenous” heritage of natural and cultural resources. Assessing visitor satisfaction and feedback can help managers to improve their service performance. For this purpose, the findings of the study reveal that the economic and environmental sustainability, among the other motivations, has shown to play a crucial role in influencing visitors’ frequency to learn about specific information concerning agriculture, the environment, and about issues regarding food, culture and the rural tradition.