Agritourism farms: a great way to promote local products

Abstract

Online communication (Web 2.0) is an important tool that can assist consumers in choosing a service and/or buying a product and, if used effectively, can help businesses to improve organizational performance. This is a study of the websites of a sample of 4,080 Italian agritourism farms, which focuses on the construction, utility, and relative maturity of these businesses. The study entails an exploration of how and where the organization of websites is effective for the promotion of the features of agritourism farms and is, therefore, essential for providing recommendations for decision-makers in the Italian agritourism sector. To test the study hypotheses, an extended Model of Internet Commerce Adoption (eMICA) is used, which is adapted to include the information reported on each agritourism farm website. Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) helps to analyze the differences in website design and vacation types on offer at the provincial level. The eMICA highlights the utility of using interactivity to measure the relative maturity of agritourism farm websites. In contrast, the CHAID decision tree shows how the diversification of vacation types is an important strategy for selling local agri-food products, especially to farm accommodation guests.