An Importance-Performance Analysis Of the Motivations Behind Agritourism and Other Farm Enterprise Developments in Canada

Abstract

Challenging conditions in the current agricultural context have encouraged farmers to develop agritourism and other enterprises on their farmland. Previous research suggests that a complex set of personal and economic goals drive the creation and maintenance of agritourism and other on-farm diversification ventures. However, the extent to which those goals are accomplished has not been verified. This study employs an importance-performance analysis (IPA) to examine the level of accomplishment of different goals driving agritourism and on-farm entrepreneurial development in Canada. IPA shows that goals with high levels of both importance and accomplishment are "to continue farming," "to enhance personal/family quality of life," "to increase or diversify the market," and "to respond to a market need or opportunity." Further, results show differences in goals between agritourism and other types of farm entrepreneurs. Study findings suggest that extension agents can focus on the operator goals considered to be most important and to yield higher levels of accomplishment as they promote agritourism and other farm enterprises. These results have important implications for rural well-being, as agritourism is suggested to keep family farms economically feasible and revitalize local communities. Keywords: agritourism, farm enterprise diversification, rural tourism, importance-performance analysis, rural well-being, goal