ABSTRACT
This study, titled “Readiness for Agritourism Development in Tuy, Batangas: A Proposed Seminar Program,” was aimed to measure agritourism development in community and made it possible to evaluate through its different expected benefits in terms of economic, social and cultural, environmental, and tourism development. The study´s emphasis laid on five dimensions of community readiness: agritourism awareness, community participation, resource availability, infrastructure and facilities, and economic readiness. The quantitative research method was used and a validated questionnaire was the tool for data collection; the questionnaire was distributed to 67 participants who were selected through stratified sampling. These participants included 15 representatives from the Local Government Units (5 each from the Department of Agriculture, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Department of Tourism), 30 farm owners, and 22 barangay captains in Tuy, Batangas.
By all indicators, the community’s readiness for agritourism development was assessed to be at the “Ready” level, which was a clear signal that the members of the community of Tuy were aware of the situation, are willing to participate, have the necessary resources, the required infrastructure, and the economic power to support agritourism ventures. The expected benefits of agritourism were given high marks with the Economic Aspect, Environmental Aspect, and Tourism Development Aspect being verbally described as “Strongly Agree,” while the Social and Cultural Aspect being described as “Agree.” Also, the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation analysis showed a moderate positive and significant relationship between community readiness and expected benefits of agritourism, which means that as community gets ready, benefits from agritourism were also more recognized and realized. The T-test and ANOVA analysis of significant differences also showed that there were differences in readiness when the respondents were categorized according to their sex and education level. On the basis of these results, a specialized Agritourism Seminar Program was designed to boost the awareness, participation, and preparedness among the people of Tuy, Batangas was able to accept agritourism development.
Keywords: Agritourism Awareness, Community Participation, Availability of Resources, Infrastructure and Facilities, Economic Readiness, Expected Benefits, Seminar Program