AGRO TOURISM IN TAIWAN. ITS IMPORTANCE AND PROSPECTS
Keywords:
agrotourism, farms, business strategies, diversification, socio- demographic characteristicsAbstract
Due to consumer demand for recreation and farmers' need to diversify their income, researchers and policy makers are showing great interest in topics related to agritourism. This study presents a supply-side analysis of agritourism using Taiwan as a case study. Using a sample of 720,148 family farms from the 2010 Agricultural Census Survey in Taiwan, we examine the effects of engaging in agritourism business on farm income, farm inheritance, and family a We determine the impact of these factors on labor supply decisions between on- farm and off-farm. the work. An analytical framework combining a double-robust regression model and semi-parametric estimation is proposed to overcome the endogeneity bias. The results show that participation in agritourism increases farm income and family farm succession. Agritourism farms also have more on-farm family members and fewer off-farm family members than non-agritourism farms. Although agritourism businesses are designed to meet consumer demand for recreation, our results show that they also improve the economic well-being of farms.
References
Gasson (1973) argues that farmers may choose to maximize satisfaction rather than maximize income.
The average age of farm operators in Taiwan is about 62 years (General Directorate of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan, Republic of China (DGBAS) 2010).
Frank and others. (2016) noted that family succession refers to the intention of a family to pass on a business to the next generation in order to preserve the family tradition.
Clough (1997) found that most visitors do not want to see working farms but to experience the atmosphere of farm life.
The authors state that both tourism and other institutions provide a favorable cost-benefit ratio and net present value for each activity.
Detailed information on the Agricultural Census Survey can be found in DGBAS (2010).
Data on types of agritourism practices are not publicly available due to privacy concerns.
