The Farm Host: Constructing Rural Hospitality

This paper explores the means through which farmwomen represent rurality and agriculture within the context of farm hospitality. An interpretative approach has been adopted to understand the lived experiences of women providers of commercial hospitality on the family farm. The analysis is based on interviews with sixteen women providers of farm tourism in the North of England. Findings show that farm heritage and rural culture are central to the farm hospitality product and the staging and performance of representing rurality can pose challenges for farm hosting. The results show a complex mix of rural life representations produced by the women hosts to meet guest expectations, combined with the construction of emotional and physical boundaries to separate the private and public space of the family farm home. The rural idyll is a concept with contradictions between realities and stakeholder expectations, which requires careful management and various strategies to cope with its challenges.