Seeking Gastronomic, Healthy, and Social Experiences in Tuscan Agritourism Facilities

Abstract

There is a growing desire among tourists to improve their lifestyle and pass their vacations in areas with a strong local gastronomic heritage. Indeed, one of the most important factors that drives visitors to choose an agritourism facility for their vacation is the pull of good food and wine. This manuscript examines visitors’ evaluations of their time spent in Tuscan agritourism facilities with particular focus on the cuisine, the health benefits, and the social experience. The analysis is based on a representative sample of 1886 reviews posted by visitors from all over of the world on the websites of 60 agritourism facilities that operate in Tuscan municipalities. By exploring visitor evaluations, which consist of an overall rating of their agritourism experience and separate ratings for the cuisine, the physical environment, and the service, this paper expands the scope of previous studies into food and drink management development as a way of attracting new visitors, by providing additional information on the distinctive characteristics of the local cuisine on offer. Results indicate that visitors—above all families—prefer an agritourism facility that offers authentic local cuisine and beverages and also offers them the possibility of spending time outdoors in destinations with a rich culinary heritage. Visibility of the main attractive attributes of agritourism facilities and the local cuisine through websites is needed in order to drive consumers in their vacation choices and to allow these structures to consolidate their place in the food and drink market.

Antecedents and consequences of tourists’ attachment in driving guests’ booking intention: a case of Airbnb, Malaysia

“…In general, consumers are more likely to feel attached to service providers that possess a better reputation. Reputation has often noted to be imperative to the sharing economy business model (Qiu et al, 2018), as it provides consumers relevant information about service providers through customer reviews and comments (Fanelli, 2020). There is more uncertainty in the online platform as compared to other business models (Baute-Díaz et al, 2019).…”

“…Specifically, this exists in the sharing economy platform businesses because of the absence of physical contact between the seller and the buyer. Consumers are most likely to seek for information pertaining to their interested service provider from reliable sources such as friends and families prior to their actual engagement with a particular service provider (Fanelli, 2020).…”

Customer Satisfaction with Farmhouse Facilities and Its Implications for the Promotion of Agritourism Resources in Italian Municipalities

“…Some studies have highlighted that, in the tourism sector, virtual communities can be used to enhance existing travel products and to create new divisions and capabilities [71]. In addition, other recent studies [35,72] have also mentioned that web pages need to offer more detailed and updated information to tourists. However, through the Internet, organisations, as well as individuals, can make their opinions, reactions and personal thoughts known to a global community of Internet users, so word of mouth (WOM) is being given new significance [73].…”

“…Furthermore, educational farms, that serve a number of social and economic functions, should be considered as a business model oriented toward sustainability and can support very well the sustainable development of rural areas [30,31]. Indeed, in these areas, FFEFs realise important synergies among agriculture, gastronomy, territory and tourism [32][33][34][35]. Instead, from a visitor perspective, educational farms can be a place where the experiential approach [36] finds a fruitful sphere of application from the demand side [37].…”

Culinary Tourism as An Effective Strategy for a Profitable Cooperation between Agriculture and Tourism

“…The increasing interest that consumers have in food quality and traditional gastronomy (Berbel-Pineda et al 2019) represents a new boost for the intersectoral cooperation between agriculture and tourism (Millán et al 2014). Culinary tourism has started to be seen as a new opportunity for local producers to get in contact with consumers (Fanelli 2019;Folgado-Fernández et al 2019). The practice of this emerging tourism typology can generate multiple benefits, overcoming the obstacles experienced with the actual form of cooperation between the two sectors (diversification and food sourcing).…”