Final Paper

Running head: RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY 1

PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 1

Agritourism

Introduction

Agritourism has been greatly influenced by cultural heritage, natural environment, and sustainable development. Arkadiusz Sadowski and Malgorzata Wojcieszak, who are passionate social scientists use their knowledge and experience to investigate the subject of agritourism in Poland. The authors are focused on the trend especially in rural areas and they speculate that the European Union funding has in one way or another influenced farming from the lens of tourism. As the authors repeatedly say, farmers' activities can encourage investments and promote tourism. The recommendation drawn from this work is that authorities in charge of agritourism development should focus on the broader perspective of business rather than a formal way of life.

Empirics

Sadowski and Wojcieszak investigate the development aspects of Polish agritourism with particular emphasis on natural and cultural attractiveness. The authors base their investigation from the general perception that the cultural and natural attractiveness of a destination is an essential exogenous development factor. It is this regard that the authors explore the concept of agritourism and seek to inform and find the patterns embraced by farmers, especially in rural areas. Consequently, Sadowski and Wojcieszak direct their efforts towards finding the efforts undertaken by farmers to access the EU funds. The authors also evaluate the usability of valuable natural and cultural resources and the potential growth of agritourism.

Context

Sadowski and Wojcieszak explore the cultural aspects of Poland communities and the attractiveness of the rural areas, which in return, fosters tourism. As such, the authors' work fits into the broader perspective of cultural or human geography. In particular, Sadowski and Wojcieszak develop a profound inquiry on Polish agritourism with particular emphasis on natural and cultural attractiveness. The findings would be of great significance especially to the EU who may be keen on the farmers' activities that encourage investments and attract more tourists. In recent years, Europe and more so in Poland, there has been an increasing importance of multifunctional farms as an alternative strategy to grow both in structural change in agriculture and adjustments to agricultural policy (Sznajder, Przezborska & Scrimgeour, 2013). In the broader discourse, the work seeks to bring into attention the possible influx of tourists in rural areas due to the outstanding human geography.

Position

Sadowski is an activist in matters of life science. He has researched other environmental issues especially in his essay "Food and environmental function in world agriculture- interdependence or competition". On the other hand, Wojcieszak is a leading comparative cross-national analyst in culture, job expectations, and job attributes. As such, the authors do not have any political interest and they are mainly concerned about expanding knowledge on agritourism in Poland and the influence of natural resources and cultural heritage to the studied community. Their occupations provide a solid backing that they can hardly align to political agenda in raising their supposed concerns. From a personal position, I think the authors are expounding on the need to preserve the high-quality natural environment as well as cultural values which seem to pay off especially for the farmers who are better positioned to get additional income from agritourism in rural areas.

Theory

Sadowski and Wojcieszak largely use exploratory data analysis theory in evaluating agritourism in the region of interest as a whole and then find clues and patterns to use a basis for the study. Specifically, the authors build their concept of cultural geography by evaluating the metrics on the development of Polish agritourism after the country acceded to the EU. Sadowski and Wojcieszak explore the five European nations with the largest number of agritourism and speculates that Poland is among the key rural areas with rural tourism activities. The authors observe that the strongest development of Polish agritourism was in the northern and southern regions. Sadowski and Wojcieszak also note that key reasons behind the regions' development are associated with geographical location, historical background, natural variation, and strong cultural foundation.

Methodology

The authors use Hellwig's synthetic development indicator to demonstrate the relationship between agritourism activities of Polish farms and cultural and natural attractiveness. Some of the important processes involved in the methodology include normalizing diagnostic features, establishing synthetic indicator values, determining the Hellwig indicator, and developing typology classes. The authors use the aforementioned process to develop a correction analysis for natural and cultural attractiveness. This enables them to determine the eligible costs for agritourism operations in the districts covered by the analysis (Sadowski & Wojcieszak, 2019). As such, the authors also use the indicators to ascertain the reflection of current and future activities. However, the variables used are retrieved from public statistics and may not adequately reference local attractions which may be a driving factor in agritourism.

Reaction

I think the authors’ study and findings are consistent with the concept of multifunctional rural development. Sadowski and Wojcieszak are committed to encouraging the maximizing of economic performance in agritourism by the use of appropriate exogenous and endogenous conditions. It is justifiable that staying at a farm is a popular phenomenon both in the US and European countries and attractions located in agritourism facilities are a great incentive to broaden tourist activities. I concur with the authors' viewpoint that European Funds ought to support projects that combine agriculture, rural tourism, and natural and cultural heritage. As indicated by previous research works, the highest concentration of agritourism activities is recorded in areas with valuable natural assets. Nonetheless, there is a need to research the wider scope of agritourism at the local rather than the national level.

Conclusion

Agritourism extends beyond the scope of normal farming and as pointed out by Sadowski and Wojcieszak, rural areas should not only produce food but also maximize non-farming business activities. In Poland, the agritourism potential for some slightly less attractive locations has not been optimally tapped. This is because Union financing was not focused on areas with valuable natural or cultural resources and untapped agritourism potential. The authors' findings are informative and form a basis for expanding efforts on agritourism.

References

Sadowski, A., & Wojcieszak, M. M. (2019). Geographic differentiation of agritourism activities in Poland vs. cultural and natural attractiveness of destinations at district level. PloS one, 14(9), e0222576. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0222576

Sznajder, M., Przezborska, L., & Scrimgeour, F. (2013). Agritourism. Wallingford: CABI.