Diversification of Farm Accommodations in Bad Hindelang, Southern Bavaria, Germany

Abstract

Since the “holiday on the farm” policy was put into effect in Germany in the early 1970s, studies of farm accommodations have developed. Their purposes are mainly to clarify the method of management and regional conditions for the development of farm accommodations. As farm accommodations have been developed in many areas, studies on their present circumstances are needed.
The purposes of this study is to clarify the recent trends in farm accommodations, especially diversification, and to investigate the factors in a region where farm accommodations have been developed. The author did field research in Bad Hindelang in the southern part of Bavaria, Germany. In Bad Hindelang, farmhouses were used as accommodations by hotspring bathing guests in the 17th century. From the end of the 1960s until the beginning of the 1970s, farm accommodations increased rapidly.
The trends in farm accommodations between 1985 and 2003 in Bad Hindelang were clarified. Until the middle of the 1990s, the majority of farm accommodations were bed-and-breakfast (B&B) types, and then they decreased sharply, while flat-type accommodations markedly increased. Operators who gave up farming also increased in the latter half of the 1990s. Farm accommodations were diversified into three types: B&B, both B&B and holiday flat, and holiday flat.
The author attempted to investigate the actual situation of farming and managing accommodations and the factors in diversification, mainly by interviewing the operators of each type of farm accommodations. The results were as follows. A farm family who continues operating a B&B has a sufficient workforce for farming, allowing the wife engage in the operation. Another reason why such families keep a B&B is the absence of successors to the operators. Shifting from a B&B to a holiday flat enables the operators to reduce their working hours. Because of the greater demand for holiday flats than for B&Bs, operators tend to invest in holiday flats. The main factors in the diversification are the amount of labor force in the family, existence of successors, and changes in demand.