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Abstract

Agritourism is a rapidly growing tourism sector due to the farmers’ need to increase their revenues and the public desire to reconnect with local food systems. Yet, agritourism development posits an additional burden to farmers who may not possess the business skills and resources required to serve visitors. In this scenario, associations emerged to provide business or technical assistance to agritourism farmers. However, these associations have been experiencing a decline of their membership body over the last decade, which is affecting the quality of their services. Although explanations on such decline are not available, it is plausible due to a change of incentives farmers seek when joining their associations. To elucidate about the reasons behind declined membership, members of two agritourism associations were surveyed. Results show members seek 11 different incentives when joining their agritourism association, which were reduced into four categories (educational, networking, policy and advocacy, economic). Based on the incentives sought, respondents were clustered into three groups (Maximizer, Progressist, Indifferent), which had statistically significant different socio-demographic, agricultural, and membership profiles. Groups also reported different levels of satisfaction with their associations and information needs. Study results contribute to the scholarly advancement of the Logic of Membership and provide marketing and management intelligence to associations, which can help to strengthen the agritourism sector.

Keywords

agritourism, association, farm tourism, incentive, Logic of Membership, motivation

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