Developing Agritourism in Al Ahsa: Issues and Challenges

Abstract

Agritourism is thriving in rural areas to represent a new pattern of agricultural diversification and an alternative farming practice that can strengthen community cohesion, enrich education, provide job opportunities, diversify the economic base and achieve agricultural sustainability. Al Ahsa is an ideal place to develop agritourism given its rich agricultural heritage as characterized by being one of the largest agricultural oases in the world. However, developing agritourism in Al Ahsa faces many challenges. This study aimed to elucidate the potential benefits of agritourism, examine the needs of agritourism providers, agritourists, and involved associations and use the Multiple Regression Model to estimate the demand functions and identify the most important social and economic factors that affect the demand. Based on preliminary data collected in the field for a random sample of 300 individuals, the results indicated that the most important factors were income, rent of the farm, and the profession. The price and income elasticities were less than one. The SWOT analysis indicated that the number of strengths reached 43%, which means that there is still a lot to be done to overcome the obstacles and the difficulties of the current situation of agritourism in Al Ahsa. The available opportunities represented 54%, which reflects the existence of an encouraging external environment and positive future expectations for agricultural tourism in the oasis. In light of the results, the study emphasized the importance of exploiting Al Ahsa Oasis entry in UNESCO World Heritage List in addition to selecting it as ‘Capital of Arab Tourism’ for 2019 to develop agritourism in a sustainable manner taking into account the economic, social and environmental aspects and does not negatively affect the environment and green areas so that the oasis retains its unique nature. KEYWORDS sustainability, rural lodges, SWOT analysis, recreational demand, farms, tourism patterns