Educational tourism in agriculture and identity of farm successors

Abstract

Although farm visiting is gaining popularity as a type of experience-oriented tourism, the economic viability of this emerging service has not been fully established. To make it viable, it is not enough to approach educational tourism solely from a technical viewpoint, we also need to approach it from the aspect of the operator’s identity, a factor that has not been addressed fully in the arena of either rural tourism or tourism economics. Thus, by presenting a conceptual economic framework that explains the connection between a farmer’s identity and the level of diversified activity including tourism, this article has evaluated, based on a questionnaire survey of next-generation successors working on-farm at Educational Dairy Farms in Japan, the hypothesis that those farmers who have enlarged their identity will be able to successfully develop diversified activities. The results clarify factors that lead to enlarged identity, including formation of both a wider perspective and more extensive human networks from social learning opportunities, and female initiative within the activity. In this context, the issue of identity formation should be properly positioned in the field of innovation-oriented capability building of farm management.