What stages have the development of farm ecotourism in foreign countries gone through?

According to the life cycle of tourism products, farm ecotourism in western developed countries, that is, rural tourism, is divided into three stages.

(1) budding stage. The rapid wave of industrialization, while liberating human social productive forces and rapid economic development, also makes residents living in cities have the enthusiasm and consumption demand to return to the countryside and appreciate the traditional culture of the countryside. 1865, Italy established the "National Association of Agriculture and Tourism", with the purpose of letting urban residents go to the countryside to appreciate the natural customs and cultural customs of farmers, so that citizens and farmers can eat, live and work together, so that urban residents can enjoy various kinds of leisure and relaxation. Industrial civilization swept across Europe, and rural tourism was gradually favored by European urban people. In 1930s, traveling to the countryside has become one of the main ways for European urban people to relax.

At this time, the development of rural tourism is still in the primary stage, which is manifested in the lack of a clear concept and naming of rural tourism and a corresponding rural tourism area and organization model. Almost all tourism activities are organized by tourists spontaneously. Tourists just take advantage of farmers' planting areas, farming areas and farmhouses in rural areas to relax, such as picking, fishing, riding horses, eating fresh fruits and vegetables and freshly baked agricultural and sideline products, and temporarily escape from the busy city life through the natural and quiet environment in the countryside. For many rural residents, they don't realize that this can be used as an opportunity to gain benefits and turn it into greater economic benefits. Many villagers regard tourists from the city as friends and only charge guests accommodation and meals appropriately.

(2) development stage. In the middle and late 20th century, rural tourism has made great progress in western countries. At this stage, western developed countries have entered the post-industrial society, and urbanization has reached a high level. On the contrary, the agricultural population is decreasing and the agricultural industrial structure is gradually rationalized. Agricultural production is mainly based on grain production, supplemented by forestry, fishery, fruit trees and characteristic breeding, and develops simultaneously. Modern agriculture has begun to take shape, and its face has taken on a new look. During this period, travel agencies began to organize all kinds of rural tourism, and farmers also found the rich benefits brought by rural tourism, and farmers who were responsible for receiving tourists appeared. This indicates that rural tourism is different from pure agriculture and pure tourism and has become a new cross-industry.

Sightseeing became the main form of rural tourism products in this period. With the development of modern agriculture, the content of rural tourism has become increasingly rich, including not only viewing the unique products such as food crops, cash crops, flowers, pastures, forests, fruits, livestock and poultry, but also increasing many activities to show and appreciate the traditional culture of villages, such as appreciating rural settlements, visiting traditional old buildings and displaying unique rural costumes. At the same time, shopping, catering, entertainment, accommodation, attending local festivals and experiencing folk customs have become the main activities. During this period, due to their different characteristics and development, villages around the world began to differentiate into rural tourism with their own characteristics and priorities to attract and satisfy different groups of tourists.

On the one hand, the content of rural tourism is gradually enriched and the quality is constantly improved; On the other hand, with the acceleration of urbanization, the cultural differences between urban and rural areas are becoming more and more obvious, and rural areas are becoming more and more attractive to urban people. The clean water and fresh air in the countryside make tourists not satisfied with short-term temporary play. They prefer to spend weekends and holidays in the countryside, devote themselves to the embrace of nature and fully enjoy the pastoral life of sunrise and sunset. In order to meet this demand, in villages with good ecological environment, farmers use idle houses and transform them into hotels with rural flavor to receive overnight tourists. For a time, the countryside has become the best choice for the elderly to have a holiday and rest on weekends. At the same time, more and more tourists are not satisfied with watching and enjoying, but also demand to actively participate in the experience life of rural labor force. As a result, rural tourism has increased a variety of business activities, which not only meets the needs of tourists, but also broadens the business model of rural tourism. In many countries, tourists want to participate in farm work, not only can't get paid, but also pay a lot of money, which has become a new orientation of tourism value. During this period, many rural holiday cottages were operated in the form of hotels, with families as management units, and rural women became the backbone of management.

(3) mature stage. Whether it is holiday travel, participatory activities or experiencing traditional rural culture, tourists can get a happy mood and learn some knowledge, so rural tourism is favored by more and more people in a wider range. In the mature stage, in order to seek the benign development of the whole region, rural tourism operators and managers began to pay attention to the creation of the overall rural environment, attach importance to the attraction of intangible cultural resources to tourists, and pay more attention to improving the lives of local community residents by developing rural tourism. Rural tourism began to have the characteristics of eco-tourism and cultural tourism.