Agriculture 4.0 and improving competitiveness of the domestic agro-food sector

Nikolić

2023

With low investment, countryside walking tourism contributes to the rapid recovery of rural tourism in the post-covid time. The research purpose is to examine factors that impact the interest of tourists in the state-supported countryside walking tourism. The sample consisted of 467 respondents from the general public. The SPSS software was used for processing data. The results indicated that safety, content, and price are the most influential factors. For females, slightly more important factors were related to the possibility of consuming authentic food and beverages, buying traditional handmade products, the inclusion of the local population, and the well-being of urban residents. A village, with authentic local houses and cuisine, and local tour guides, are the epicenter of countryside walking tourism. Embedding countryside walking tourism in sustainable rural tourism development policies is recommended. The research contributes to the integration between sustainable rural development and sustainable tourism development.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Development of Countryside Walking Tourism in the Time of the Post-Covid Crisis

Nikolić

2023

“…Understanding the competitive environment refers to analysis for understanding a group of destinations servicing tourism products that compete directly with each other (Suarez & Olivia, 2005;Brauns, 2015) and researching tourists and their motivations, triggers, and behavior for using the nature tourism product (Yousaf et al, 2018) are prerequisites for initiating the first classical function of management -planning, that determine destination goals and means for achieving them. Then follows the organization, as another function of management, to organize the rural destination to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage (Bešić et al, 2021), which requires resources that are valuable, rare, and irreplaceable and cannot be perfectly copied namely natural resources. Situational analysis determines the need for strategic changes (Straková et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management of Countryside Walking Tourism Through Understanding Users and Their Needs

Milojković,

Milojković

2023

sij

Walking tourism, among the most attractive manners to observe a destination and satisfy the growing demand of visitors for outdoor activities, allows tourists to interact closely with local nature, people, tradition, culture, and heritage. Walking tourism needs low investments and can be developed anywhere. The impacts of greenspace on people’s physical and mental health contribute to the accelerated development of this form of tourism. By better understanding users, it is more likely to develop a product or service that works for them. Despite the efforts of urban areas to become greener and more attractive (Callaghan et al., 2021), rural areas have unique and pristine natural resources that cannot be created artificially. In addition, life in the village is still traditional, peaceful, and easy, customs are respected, and the cultural heritage has been preserved from the influence of the modern, high-tech age and global market trends (Štetić & Šimičević, 2017). When developing a nature tourism product, the focal question is related to real user needs. Such as the lack of information about user needs accounts for 35% of total reasons for start-ups’ failures (CBInsights, 2021), this logic can also easily apply to tourism destinations. To learn about user needs, the starting point is to research users and their motivations, triggers, and context for using the product or service. Considering the impact of greenspace on people’s physical and mental health, countryside walking tourism (CWT), with the village as the pivot of tourist activities, is a rapidly developing form of rural tourism. Properly developed and managed, walking tourism brings social-economic benefits to destinations and gains a significant place in regional sustainable development (Milojković et al., 2023a). CWT, with the village as the pivot of tourist activities, is a rapidly developing form of rural tourism (Milojković et al., 2023b). Understanding users and their needs-based CWT management reduces the risk of expensive failures, ensures timely delivery, sets up and manages a team to design, build, and maintain a product or service, and opens space for innovations. The research purpose is to perceive users of the countryside walking tours and their needs during those tours. Among the general scientific methods, the statistical method and the hypothetico-deductive method were used. The research data were collected using the questionnaire-based survey technique and processed by SPSS. The general results indicated that the management of CWT should target meeting user needs for visiting hidden and original places with a local guide, consuming and buying authentic food and drinks, and raising awareness and building communicative capacities of the local population. The research contribution is to improve the management of rural tourism destinations based on understanding users and their needs for countryside walking tours.

“…Several authors, such as Zia et al [20], Jarosz-Angowska et al [21], Nowak and Kasztelan [22], Nowak and Rozanska-Boczula [15], Besic et al [23], Stoeva et al [24], Hoang [25], Simin et al [26], Wigier [12], and Markovic [27] dealt with the issue of the competitiveness of companies working on the soil. However, there are few studies that evaluated the competitiveness of agricultural enterprises through the RCR coefficient, which presents an opportunity for research.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Composite Analysis of Competitiveness: Case Study of Companies Working the Soil in the Slovak Republic

et al. 2023

Competitiveness and sustainability in view of the constantly changing market environment are among the basic characteristics of a company, while its progress and growth are largely determined by the field of business and the nature of production. The introduction of the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU after the accession of the Slovak Republic to the EU significantly changed the necessary conditions for the functioning of domestic agriculture. Agriculture in the European Union is highly differentiated; therefore, surveys on the sustainability and competitiveness of agriculture at the national level are very valuable. Agricultural cooperatives in Slovakia compete for market share with non-cooperative organizations. In our research, we used a sample of enterprises in the agricultural sector, and, using the RCR coefficient, we evaluated the competitiveness of enterprises from the point of view of individual legal forms. The purpose of our research is to answer a simple question: What is the cause of the recorded development of the RCR index? In the case of non-cooperatives, the value of the regressor is higher in each comparison with the results of cooperatives. However, the nature of the relationship in the case of entities operating on agricultural land in the Slovak Republic with the legal form of a cooperative is significantly more homogeneous across the evaluated period.