What problems are encountered in the development of agritourism?
Developing agritourism helps adjust and optimize the rural industrial structure, extend the agricultural industry chain, drive the development of the secondary and tertiary industries, and improve the comprehensive benefits of agriculture. At the current stage, the main causes hindering the development of agritourism and giving rise to problems are insufficient understanding of agritourism, lagging management, and inadequate services. Agritourism should not simply let urban visitors relax and eat, drink and enjoy themselves without restraint; rather, it should guide or choose to receive those visitors who can accept the strengths of the countryside and agriculture, and realize urban and rural residents jointly seeking true prosperity, with a concept of sustainable development. That is the purpose of future agricultural experiences.
Why develop agritourism?
Developing agritourism helps adjust and optimize the rural industrial structure, extend the agricultural industry chain, drive the development of the secondary and tertiary industries, and improve the comprehensive benefits of agriculture; it helps transfer and employ surplus rural labor, because agritourism is a labor-intensive industry that needs not only production and management personnel but also service staff engaged in accommodation, catering, transport, commerce and other services, creating conditions for transferring surplus rural labor and increasing farmers' incomes; agritourism facilitates the exchange of people, information, technology and ideas between urban and rural areas, not only enabling urban residents to understand and experience agriculture, but also enabling farmers to change their ideas and improve their qualities, strengthening urban-rural interaction and promoting coordinated urban-rural development; agritourism helps tap, protect and pass on agricultural culture, protect rural resources and the ecological environment, and realize the sustainable development of agriculture.
What problems are encountered in developing agritourism?
At the current stage, the main causes hindering the development of agritourism and giving rise to problems are insufficient understanding of agritourism, lagging management, and inadequate services.
1. Lack of planning (running agritourism requires professional planning)
Many agritourism projects do not recognize the value of planning consulting and planning design, and are unwilling to spend the money to invite professional institutions to compile planning consulting and planning design schemes with guiding value, resulting in a relatively low overall level of development.
2. Homogeneous competition (creativity and innovation are what today's consumers like)
Seeing what others do to make money, they do the same; simple imitation ultimately leads to white-hot homogeneous competition, which has become a common problem in the agritourism field.
3. Lack of talent (the lack of talent hinders it; cultivating talent is key)
Whether it is large enterprises entering the agritourism field or farming households engaged in farmhouse entertainment operations, development and management talent is very scarce. How to rely on government support and connect with relevant institutions to achieve substantive breakthroughs in talent training and guiding high-quality professional talent into the agritourism field is an important topic.
4. Insufficient funds (a must-consider issue when running agritourism)
Agritourism projects built entirely relying on government policy funds (or simply for the purpose of fraudulently obtaining policy funds) will find it very hard to survive sustainably, let alone achieve major development. Innovation in profit models and financing models is the way out of the funding dilemma of agritourism.
When running agritourism, you absolutely must not have these misconceptions!
Many people have certain misconceptions about agritourism; let's expose them one by one!
Misconception 1: With good resources, you are sure to make money!
Many agricultural investors often feel that they have obtained a good piece of land, or have some government resources, and so on, but they do not know how to integrate resources and quickly monetize them, and cannot find a profit model or entry point. Therefore, even with very good resources, they do not know how to reasonably use them and give play to their maximum value, and cannot achieve profitability.
Misconception 2: Always feeling that the more projects there are, the more attractive it is, and people will surely come!
Many agricultural investors are full of ambition at the start and have many wonderful ideas; right from the beginning they want to build to scale and get everything done in one step. Accommodation, catering, entertainment and other one-stop services, they think, are what will attract people. But the reality is that the more projects invested in, the more money is spent, and in the end the projects are miscellaneous and lack distinctive features, and still no one comes.
Misconception 3: Finding "experts" to do the planning surely cannot go wrong (not inviting a truly professional company to do the planning)!
Many agricultural investors find so-called "experts" to do the planning, with pavilions, terraces and towers, catering and accommodation all complete, spending quite a lot of money from beginning to end, but in actual operation they often find that such plans only say how to spend money and do not clearly explain how to make money. Where exactly is the problem? They did not invite a truly professional company to do the planning, so the project's operability, profitability and implementability are not strong!
If you want to profit in agritourism, you need to know how to play these models. See whether you have heard of them?
Model 1: Mastering the agricultural industry chain
The "whole industry chain" refers to a complete industrial chain system formed by multiple links covered from the mountains to the dining table, including planting and procurement, trade/logistics, food ingredients/feed ingredients and biochemistry, breeding and slaughtering, food processing, distribution, logistics, brand promotion, food sales and many other links. Agritourism is no longer many farmers relying on nature to engage in simple production to directly meet human demand for grain, livestock products and so on, but an industry that provides multiple services such as leisure, sightseeing, vacationing, experiencing, entertainment, fitness, as well as education, promotion and demonstration.
Integrating the industry chain is the foundation of agritourism; mastering the major links of the industry chain is the real way! Closely combine local natural resources and use the productive, ornamental, entertaining, participatory, cultural and market-oriented aspects of agritourism to develop agritourism projects.
Model 2: Using scarce and distinctive place-of-origin resources to develop an industry
Nowadays the phenomenon of homogenization is very serious; many things are what others already have, so if you are going to do it, do something distinctive! Distinctive natural resources mainly include distinctive climate conditions, distinctive land resources, distinctive water resources, distinctive biological resources and so on; distinctive cultural resources include ethnic minority culture, distinctive food, distinctive crafts, distinctive festivals, distinctive architecture, farming culture and so on.
Model 3: Cross-border catering model
Catering culture is a cultural phenomenon concerning people's eating and drinking behavior. It runs through the entire historical period of human development and is embodied in every aspect and every link, including in agritourism and rural tourism. Making good use of this culture in planning and design such as agritourism planning and design and rural tourism planning is quite pivotal for the development of creative agritourism.
Agritourism has many places where money can be made and many breakout points. I wonder whether you are clear about them?
1. Distinctiveness:
There is no doubt that the development of agritourism must rely on local distinctiveness. The key to whether a leisure farm can develop better lies in whether the operator can discover the natural resources, landscape resources, industry resources, cultural resources and human resources of the project's location and reasonably use and develop them, giving play to the biological, seasonal and practical characteristics unique to rural and agricultural resources, thereby creating the farm's distinctiveness. At the same time, attention should also be paid to combining and giving play to rural cultural resources, which is even more the focus of shaping the distinctiveness of a leisure farm.
2. Experientialization:
One of the selling points of agritourism is the experiential aspect. How to design superior resources into knowledgeable, interesting and humanized experiential activities, integrate visitors into the scene, move their senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, and make them produce wonderful feelings and unforgettable memories, will be the key to whether leisure farms can win in the future.
3. Ecologicalization:
Natural ecology is the "treasure" of agritourism. It can be said that if agritourism has no natural ecology to rely on, it is equivalent to a person without a soul. Therefore, leisure farms should cherish natural capital, strike a balance between leisure tourism and ecological protection, and thereby lay the foundation for sustainable development.
4. Health-oriented development:
Health is something everyone values, and healthy "agritourism" is undoubtedly a major highlight. A comfortable environment can help people reduce stress and worries. Therefore, future leisure farm operators should devote themselves to maintaining the environment, providing fresh air, clean water, non-toxic vegetables and fruits, and designing health-preserving catering and fitness and exercise venues, creating a harmonious social feeling rich in human warmth, thereby helping visitors maintain their physical and mental health.
5. Integration:
Agritourism should not simply let urban visitors relax and eat, drink and enjoy themselves without restraint; rather, it should guide or choose to receive those visitors who can accept the strengths of the countryside and agriculture, and realize urban and rural residents jointly seeking true prosperity, with a concept of sustainable development. That is the purpose of future agricultural experiences.