a b s t r a c t
This article examines the business choices made by independent farming families, when confronting the
need to diversify away from traditional agricultural activities by starting farm-based tourism businesses.
Based on interviews with farm family members who have set up tourism attractions on their farms, and
drawing upon the concept of experiential authenticity, the article explores their self-conceptions of their
family identities. In so doing, it addresses the choices and dilemmas facing farm families who attempt
diversification through the tourism attraction route, and considers how this affects their attitudes
towards more traditional farming activities. Using qualitative case study data, an empirically grounded
framework is proposed that expresses the choices and challenges facing tourism entrepreneurial family
farm members in the UK, through the conceptual lens of experiential authenticity.
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