Vines, wines, and visitors: A case study of agricultural diversification into winery tourism (Ontario, British Columbia).

摘要

Structural change, intensified by the pressures of globalization, free trade, technology, agricultural policy, rurality, and post-productivism, is initiating new forms of survival in Canadian agriculture. One of the survival techniques increasingly favoured by Canadian farmers is agri-tourism. As the melding of agricultural production and tourist hospitality, agri-tourism holds out an abundance of promises. Yet, little is known about the way in which agricultural harvest, farm well being, and rural community organization may be altered through this type of development. The following research sets out to investigate the nature and influence of agri-tourism as it is emerging in Canada in one key sector, namely the wine and grape industry. Specifically, this study uses case examples from the wine regions of the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario and the Okanagan-Similkameen Valley of British Columbia, to investigate the state of winery tourism development in Canada, to consider how perceived impacts of winery tourism affect agriculture, and to explore how existing institutional arrangements address these effects. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)