Factors Influencing the Development of Agritourism (Case study: Jahrom, Fars)

In the current situation, besides having to create jobs so as to help poverty reduce, there is a need for supplemental income for farmers. As the agriculture industry in Iran is dealing with different problems such as drought, it seems that a supplement income is required for the sustainability of agricultural activities and preservation of the rural population. This additional income arising from activities such as tourism can also create some new jobs. In this regard, the linkage between tourism and agriculture leads to the formation of agritourism. Agritourism is considered as both an opportunity for surviving agriculture in different regions and has different economic impacts (for local people); also, it is identified as an opportunity for growth and development. In this article, the purpose concerning previously conducted research and elite opinion poll (agricultural and touristic responsibles, specialists, and experts) is to determine and examine the factors influencing the development of agritourism. Hence, related variables were extracted by reviewing the related literature and considering the experts’ points of view and, firstly, 134 variables were recognized; These variables were reduced to 34 ones according to the experts’ opinion poll (by considering the conditions of region) during three stages. Then, 260 respondents’ responses (collected by a questionnaire) were analyzed using SPSS and LISREL software. Factors analysis (exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis) results showed that there are 5 factors which are influencing the development of agritourism in Jahrom and forming the research model: 1- Intellectual infrastructure 2- physical infrastructure 3- Institutional factors 4- Promotion and development, and 5- competitiveness factors. All in all, the clearest results of the Coding method indicated that home-based business is the most important one resulting from agritourism