Abstract

Agricultural tourism contributes positively to rural development in many countries around the world, especially in developing nations. With a tradition of agricultural production and tourism development as a key economic sector, Vietnam strives to build a new countryside from 2021 to 2025 based on AT. Located in the center of the Mekong Delta region, Vietnam's leading agricultural production area, Can Tho City is promoting the economic model of urban and high-tech agriculture in combination with tourism development. Studying the factors affecting agri-tourism participation by farmer households plays an important role in the growth of the economic model. By selecting 248 typical farmer households who are engaged in agro-tourism activities in 05 urban districts and 04 rural districts of CTC, the present study aims to (1) explore the factors influencing farmers' decision to participate in local agri-tourism activities; (2) analyze and evaluate the order of importance of these factors; (3) propose management implications to encourage the farmers' participation in local agricultural tourism activities. Approaches of this study included document research, field observations, in-depth interviews, and survey questionnaires. Research data obtained were analyzed by (1) Descriptive statistics with SPSS 20.0; (2) Evaluation of the measurement model by Partial Least Squares (PLS Algorithms) with SMARTPLS 3.0 software; (3) Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) test. The study findings revealed six factors in descending order of importance that affect farmers' decision to participate in local agri-tourism activities: (1) Local authorities' support (including policies, management); (2) Physical capital (including agricultural ecological environment (e.g. land area, production model), internet accessibility, income); (3) Perceived usefulness (including the values of AT for rural development); (4) Market (including market demand, market accessibility, favorable local resources (e.g. infrastructure, utilities)); (5) Social capital (including participation in farmer and tourism associations/clubs and contact with agricultural and tourism officers); (6) Human capital (including age, education level of the farmer household head). Based on the actual findings of the study, the management implications related to the stakeholders were finally proposed with the desire to stimulate the active participation of farmer households in local agri-tourism activities to promote this economic model developed in the study area.

Keywords: agriculture tourism, farmer household, rural development, Can Tho City, Mekong Delta region, Vietnam