Farm tourism and dilemmas of commercial activity in the home

Abstract

This article aims to analyse the overlap between work and home in farm tourism. When farmers diversify their production into tourism using their homes as a commercial arena for hosting visitors, new challenges regarding boundaries between private and public, home and work arise. The article shows how central aspects of hosting involve inherent dilemmas between the farm as a home and as a site of commercial activities. Moreover, it shows how the boundaries between work and home are managed in order to balance business and a sense of home. Such boundary work consists of attempts at adjusting the product, marking rules and creating separate spaces for home and work, something that produces a more conditional hospitality. The analysis is based on studies of twenty family farms from various districts in Norway. Some of the farms combine tourism and farming while others have altered their production to tourism only. The material includes formal interviews with sixteen women and nineteen men operating the businesses.