TEHRAN–Iranian Agriculture Minister Javad Sadati Nejad has said that villages’ economies will be driven by agritourism in the future.

“Future economic growth will be based on agritourism in rural areas,” IRNA quoted the minister as saying on Saturday.

Several villages in Iran have been depopulated because drought occurs in some areas due to climate change, and the agricultural industry has lost its economic power, which leads to the migration from the village to the city, the minister explained.

Agritourism can compensate for the void created by the loss of farming income by developing rural livelihood in this case, he added.

Due to the attractiveness of rural life and agriculture for tourists and travelers, rural tourism plays a significant role in maintaining villages and sustaining production in rural areas, he mentioned.

Agritourism and nature-tourism enterprises might include outdoor recreation (fishing, hunting, wildlife study, horseback riding), educational experiences (cannery tours, cooking classes, or tea or coffee tasting), entertainment (harvest festivals or barn dances), hospitality services (farm stays, guided tours, or outfitter services), and on-farm direct sales (u-pick operations or roadside stands).

It is a relatively new branch of the travel industry in which tourists stay with local people in rural areas. Farm/ranch recreation refers to activities conducted on private agricultural lands, which might include fee-hunting and fishing, overnight stays, educational activities, etc.

Experts believe that in addition to the customer services jobs, agritourism pays special attention to the production sector, saying agricultural tourism is much more important and practical than other branches of tourism because it creates a new chain and diversity in the field of production and services.

Agritourism is a subset of a larger industry called rural tourism that includes resorts, off-site farmers' markets, non-profit agricultural tours, and other leisure and hospitality businesses that attract visitors to the countryside.

ABU/AM