Farm Tourism: Lifestyle Entrepreneurship and Private Hospitality

This paper draws on a study of one specific type of small tourism enterprises (i.e. farm tourism enterprises) and argues that these enterprises differ from other enterprises in relation to a series of issues other than merely size. The analysis shows that enterprises such as these are characterized by blurriness of boundaries between „home spheres‟ and work situations as well as by a unique blend of commercial and private hospitality. Furthermore, the study shows that „social‟ motivations and non-monetary benefits gained through host-guest interactions are of great importance to the hosts. In particular, our study suggests that it is problematic to threat farm tourism enterprises as if they have much in common with both larger corporations and other types of SMTEs. Farm tourism enterprises seem to differ significantly from other enterprises as the hosts are not in the tourism business because it is particularly profitable but because of more „social motivations‟ (such as the sharing of the rural experience with outsiders, to socialize and meet new people and to re-construct self-perceptions)and the paper points to implications for future research.