2.1 Welcome and Hospitality

The word agritourism alone is capable of arousing profound emotions in each of us, evoking contact with the land. The combination of agriculture and tourism fascinates and brings to mind original needs, attachment to the land and a desire for harmony and relaxation that today, in today’s hectic city life, are difficult to satisfy.

People are increasingly looking for stays or holidays that offer direct contact with nature, which has unfortunately been somewhat lost, and above all allow for special experiences. In addition, there are more and more lovers of good food, seeking traditional foods and the flavours of yesteryear, linked to the warmth of family.

The choice of opening an agritourism and offering an original, familiar and natural form of hospitality can really prove to be a winning one and very profitable, today more than ever.

Previously of interest to a small circle of enthusiasts of traditions and food and wine specialities, today it involves broad strata of the population, motivated by contact with nature, good food, tranquillity and generally low prices.

2.2 Food Provision

Whoever carries out agritourism activities must be an agricultural entrepreneur considering the connection of agritourism with rural tourism, and the different denomination of the activity live agritourism, farm tourism, farm-based tourism 

In order to guarantee a high level of quality the agritourism can provide:

• accommodation in lodgings or open spaces intended for campers; 
• provide meals and beverages, consisting mainly of their own products and those of farms in the area, with preference given to typical products and characterised by the DOP, IGP, IGT, DOC and DOCG marks or included in the national list of traditional agri-food products;
• organise tastings of farm produce, including wine-tasting; organise, also outside the farm property, depending on the availability of the business, recreational and refreshment activities (picnics, etc.), also by means of agreements with local authorities, aimed at enhancing the territory and rural heritage.

2.3 Environmental protection and Sustainability

The main characteristics of environmentally sustainable agritourisms are as follows:

• low energy consumption. To this end, the choice of the accommodation’s orientation is also important, with a south-facing position being preferred;
• use of LED bulbs that can consume up to 80% less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs;
• low water consumption thanks to the use of rational irrigation techniques for the land surrounding the accommodation facility;
• staff sensitive to environmental issues. 
• consumption of 0 km and genuine products, as they come from the local area, with preference given to organic ones. To meet this great challenge, many accommodation facilities have equipped themselves with their own gardens or orchards where raw materials are cultivated. 
• distribution in guests’ rooms of kits of towels and sheets made from organic and natural materials;
• use of ecological soaps and detergents;
• encouragement of eco-sustainable tourism by providing guests with bicycles to travel the area’s itineraries without the use of a car;
• use of natural and recycled materials for the accommodation facility’s interior furnishings and preference given to paints with natural and non-chemical pigments.

It is precisely this last point that allows us to introduce the subject of so-called bio-architecture, which consists in the use of furniture and carpets not coated with synthetic glues, such as formaldehyde, which are highly harmful to human health. It is therefore preferable to use wood for furniture and floor coverings, a material that among other things has a thermal-insulating function

2.4 Rewards

There are two different categories of quality labels for agritourisms: a first one referring to the quality of receptivity service and another one concerning the quality of foodstuffs. Such double characteristic seems not to be properly taken into account in current quality brands. In other words, there is a gap to be covered in order to agritourisms be perceived by users for its whole quality services.

According to the current researchers, it seems that there is room for designing an advanced brand for agritourism. For such a new environmental excellence label, one needs to change the current approach to the evaluation of the tourism offer, shifting toward an integrated vision that encounters:

1. An integrated approach related to the whole offer of agritourism, that is services + foodstuffs;
2. An integrated approach also related to what agritourism is composed by, that is tourist facility + working farm.

In other words, point 1 refers to the services that guests are provided with, while point 2 refers to the components of the agritourism system that generate such services. More specifically, point 1 signal that the new quality scheme should assess not only the performances of the accommodation service but also the foodstuff quality of products coming from the agritourism itself and provided to guests. This means taking contemporary into account the foodstuff quality of products, the environmental quality of the services and the environmental quality of the food chain.

Below a list of usefull EUROPEAN REFERENCES for certifying the quality of your structure 

Quality Labels For Agritourisms

• EU Ecolabel for tourist accommodation
• AIAB brand for bio-ecological farm holidays (accommodation)
• PDO, PGI, TSG, DOC Traceability regulations, EPD(food)  
• LCA approach (agricultural activities)

Quality brand for agritourism in Europe 

• EU Ecolabel for the tourist facilities and camping 
• ECEAT European center for ecological and agricultural tourism
• Urlaub auf dem Bauernhof
• Urlaub auf dem Winzernhof
• AIAB 

Characteristics of some relevant quality brand for food sector

• PDO – Protected Designation of Origin
• PGI – Protected Geographical Indication
• DOC – Controlled Designation of Origin