The purpose of this study is to clarify farmers' adaptation strategies to changes in agri-tourism in the Nishino Area, Minami-Alps City, Yamanashi Prefecture. Minami-Alps City is a well-known fruit-growing area in the Kofu basin. The area where cherries are grown is the largest near the Tokyo metropolitan area. For this reason, some farmers started offering a cherry-picking experience and engaged in direct selling to tourists from Tokyo in the 1970s. In the 1980s, agricultural cooperatives started up farm-based tourism businesses. However, in the late 1990s, the drawing power of the farm-based tourism business declined. These changes have made it necessary for farmers to become more entrepreneurial than before as a way of increasing business. Believing that communicating with tourists and consumers is important, farmers adopted management policies in accordance with their needs. Their activities received high evaluations for the diversification of farm management. Entrepreneurial farmers advertised cherry picking and agri-tourism in Minami-Alps City to a broad audience. These activities were effective for individual farms and the area became known as a prosperous agri-tourism spot. On the other hand, farms that have farm labor shortages or use off-farm workers have focused on shipping farm products to agricultural cooperatives rather than engaging in agri-tourism, and reduced the burdens imposed by agri-tourism. This enabled farms engaged in agri-tourism to diversify. Therefore, a large number of farms in this area engage in agri-tourism, which has given a strong image to tourists. The attractions of agri-tourism are enhanced by both the activities of active farmers and stability-oriented farmers.
