How Authenticity and Tradition Shift into Sustainability and Innovation: Evidence from Italian Agritourism

Abstract

This study investigates the topic of innovation strategies based on tradition in the wake of sustainability, in the agritourism sector, as derived from the phenomenon of multifunctionality in agriculture. The results reveal that the tangible and intangible resources that originate from tradition are drivers for innovation. The research highlights how tradition, as grounded on diverse foundations, is able to generate novel products and services stemming from an innovative arrangement of past events, particularly the identity of a place, which brings out its authenticity and makes it even more attractive. In this paper, we delve into the multifaceted outcomes that tangible and intangible traditions have on the innovation and distinctive standing of this rising accommodation offer with regard to post-productivism agriculture, and how this is accomplished while also looking for sustainability. The sourced dataset is based on a qualitative investigation of 10 cases in the Salento area of Puglia, a region of southern Italy. Tradition-grounded strategies proved to have several viable routes leading to innovation and bear positive impacts on the territory and the creation of value, yielding significant results both for scholars and practitioners.

Creative Tourism on Islands: A Review of the Literature

“…In some specific case studies, this may require exploring further works in related fields, eventually going beyond the references that specifically address island contexts. For instance, if a rural island community is engaged in developing a creative tourism approach related to agricultural practices, its stakeholders may benefit from insights found in the adjacent field of agritourism-in which some recent innovations converge with creative and experiential tourism trends (e.g., by fostering interaction between hosts and guests through creative activities that help promote local products and artisan arts and crafts) [79,80]. This is just one example among many other possible concepts or connections (with ecotourism, religious tourism, slow tourism, etc.)…”

Agritourism resilience against Covid-19: Impacts and management strategies

“…Although time-consuming and long interview responses are two main issues of interviews, the probing technique prominent in the semistructured questions format are used to filter and gather granular details or specific information that are deemed crucial to the study. To understand the perspectives of the farm owners and entrepreneurs are essential in agritourism study, therefore, similar studies have also chosen semi-structured interviews (SSI) as the reliable method of directly speaking to interviewees (Mastronardi et al, 2020;Palmi & Lezzi, 2020). In our research, the SSI is conducted physically at the three farms.…”

“…The receptiveness towards embracing Covid-19 technologies are not solely triggered by the latest pandemic but rather due to the reflexive capabilities of agritourism in resolving past issues. Pre-Covid-19 studies discovered that in order to ensure sustainable development in rural areas, agritourism farms had to be innovative and highly competitive (Bhatta & Ohe, 2020;Palmi & Lezzi, 2020;Roman et al, 2020aRoman et al, , 2020b. The objective to develop sustainable agritourism required a common strategy that involved creating agritourism innovations.…”

“…There are various interpretations or types of innovations found in the studies but the term itself generally refer to the development of original products, development of creative marketing based on nature and local culture, and improving existing tourism products (Roman et al, 2020a). Palmi and Lezzi (2020) study on Italian farms found that agritourism innovation products consist of both tangible and intangible local traditions in the community and territory. "The traditions are sourced from the firm (farm products), the destination (geographic landscape), historical events, and inspirations from previous industrial heritage" (Palmi & Lezzi, 2020, pp.…”

The Essence of Agritourism and Its Profitability during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

“…The essence of innovation in agritourism is based on the assumption that, currently, a tourist who decides to rest in the countryside is looking for an offer that will satisfy his expectations and, at the same time, surprise him with its originality. Innovation in agritourism can consist in creating, from scratch, your own, original tourist product (e.g., a theme village based on the use of an attractive original idea), as well as building a professional marketing environment for the natural and cultural values existing in a given area (e.g., organizing services and tourism infrastructure around objects of material culture and their promotion) [69].…”