A study to investigate why agricultural based businesses in South Pembrokeshire have diversified into tourism.

Abstract

The research project aimed to discover the motivation behind agricultural businesses move from traditional agriculture to tourism in the South Pembrokeshire area. It looked at the existing literature and research that was available and discovered the key topics that have the biggest impact within the literature. The methodology chapter highlights the methods the author used in the collection of the primary data; these were questionnaires and an interview. The questionnaires were sent out to businesses which were known to have diversified and to those that were considered to be just agricultural businesses. From the research results the author was then able to compile the responses and analyse the data, to formulate appropriate findings. These included the main motivation for diversification, gender and age of those that had diversified and the relationships that existed between them. It also discovered why businesses had not diversified and analysed the relationships between those results and the gender and age of those respondents. From the findings the author was then able to draw several conclusions including that increasing income was the main motivation for diversifying, and that the female members of the family were more involved in the diversification. The author was then able to draw upon all the factors from the literature review, the findings and the discussion to offer some recommendation for future research areas and also offering some advice to those businesses wishing to diversify in the future.