چکیده:
Understanding any phenomenon requires a basic understanding of its fundamental defining characteristics. However this has yet to be done for agritourism. Comprehensive examination of the literature reveals numerous labels and definitions for agritourism based on a variety of characteristics (Table 1). Labels such as agrotourism, farm tourism, farm-based tourism, and rural tourism are often used interchangeably with agritourism and each other (Barbieri & Mshenga, 2008; Roberts & Hall, 2001; Wall, 2000), but have also been used explicitly to denote similar but distinct concepts (Iakovidou, 1997; McGehee & Kim, 2004; Sharpley & Sharpley,1997). The result is a complex and confusing picture, especially when authors do not clarify why they have used one particular term rather than another. For the purposes of clarity and consistency, the term ‘agritourism’ will be used throughout this paper to refer to the range of related labels, concepts and products discussed in the literature as a whole. However we reiterate the argument that agritourism is not synonymous with rural tourism, rather it is a more specific subset of rural tourism as a broader concept (Clarke, 1999; Nilsson, 2002).