Place-making impelled by farm tourism on a tropical island

Little research has been conducted on the place-making agency of farm tourism. Yet farm tourism is an increasingly important tourism activity that yields many economic, sociocultural, and environmental benefits. To shed more light on this subject, participant observation of, and semi-structured interviews with, farmers and visitors at farms on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu were conducted. The results revealed that through farm tourism, the tangible and intangible assets of the farms became recreational and educational resources, infusing the farms with new meanings and values and transforming them from agricultural productionscapes into places that were also consumptionscapes. The physical environment surrounding the farm, farm visitors and their externalities, community involvement with the farm, and the farmers' entrepreneurialism and desire to educate the public about agriculture and perpetuate their traditions, emerged as place-making influences. These findings corroborated those of other inquiries on place-making in tourism, facilitating the theorization of this process. Conceptual models of the posited antecedents, processes, and outcomes of place-making related to farm tourism, and tourism in general, are presented, and recommendations are advanced for further research that will contribute to theorization in this area.

Automated summary

This study sheds light on the place-making agency of farm tourism through participant observation and interviews with farmers and visitors on farms in O'ahu, Hawaii. The results show that farm tourism transforms farms into recreational and educational resources, giving them new meanings and values. The physical environment, visitor interactions, community involvement, and farmers' entrepreneurialism and desire for education all contribute to place-making in farm tourism.