Dear Colleagues,

Presently, tourism undoubtedly represents a key driver for the development of many inner areas; consider, for example, that mountains account for 15%–20% of worldwide tourism [1] and only the Alps are able to attract around 120 million tourists each year [2].

Compared to the tourism industry, agriculture often plays a marginal economic role but, since mountain landscapes have been shaped by agricultural activities for centuries [3], it still has a primary role in their conservation.

However, when considering inner areas, especially mountainous ones, it is worth noting that economic activities are strongly characterized by fragmentation, small business size, and lack of communication among tourism and food chain actors, local administrators, and other stakeholders [4]. This situation may affect the competitiveness of both agricultural and tourism holdings, the former being unable to promote their high-quality products and find an appropriate placement on markets, and the latter unable to propose an offer tightly tied to territories.

The need of integrating the agriculture and tourism chains results from these considerations and has to be pondered as a tool for boosting the local economies. In fact, even if the interconnections between the two sectors are clear—farms produce many local foods used by tourism holdings, and agritourism is a well-known tourist accommodation facility linked to agriculture [5]—not much has been explored to date in order to integrate the two chains in a common development vision.

This Special Issue proposal aims at discussing the real feasibility of integrating agriculture and tourism as a strategy for boosting the economic development of inner mountain areas; is the integration of agriculture and tourism supply chains possible? Will such an integration trigger innovation processes and result in productions supporting the local community development? The contributions in this Special Issue will answer these questions by providing theoretical and methodological approaches as well as research results, applications, and experiences on the integration between agriculture and tourism, with a special focus on mountainous areas.

Papers selected for this Special Issue are subjected to a peer review procedure with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments, and applications.

Prof. Stefano Duglio
Prof. Giampiero Lombardi
Dr. Hans Olav Bråtå
Guest Editors

References

1. Debarbieux, B.; Oiry Varacca, M.; Rudaz, G.; Maselli, D.; Kohler, T.; Jurek, M. (Eds.). Tourism in Mountain Regions: Hopes, Fears and Realities. Sustainable Mountain Development Series. UNIGE, CDE, SDC: Geneva, Switzerland, 2014.
2. World Wide Fund for Nature – WWF (2019). The European Alps. Available online: http://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/where_we_work/alps/ (accessed on 15 November 2019)
3. Bätzing, W. Le Alpi. Una regione unica al centro d’Europa. Bollati Boringhieri: Torino, Italy,
4. Duglio, S.; Bonadonna, A.; Letey, M.; Peira, G.; Zavattaro, L.; Lombardi, G. Tourism Development in Inner Mountain Areas—The Local Stakeholders’ Point of View through a Mixed Method Approach. Sustainability 2019, 11, 5997.
5. Lupi, C.; Giaccio, V.; Mastronardi, L.; Giannelli, A.; Scardera, A. Exploring the features of agritourism and its contribution to rural development in Italy, Land Use Policy, 2017, 64, 383–390.

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• rural tourism
• mountain tourism
• sustainable tourism
• local communities
• sustainable agriculture
• food quality
• agriculture and tourism chains integration