14

Agritourism presents a double challenge, both political, in favor of heritage preservation, and strategic, as a lever for the development of the agricultural sector. This article proposes an analytical and historical interpretation of agritourism. It identifies three approaches that refer to three periods and three diversification strategies, each based on a particular vision of heritage. In the first, agritourism, “pushed” by public policies through the concept of multifunctionality, constitutes a defensive strategy whose dominant issue is the preservation of rural heritage. In the second conception, agritourism is developed as a more offensive strategy that appears to be “driven” by cultural heritage. In the final conception, agritourism appears as a way to bring value to agricultural heritage, which can regenerate agriculture in the Anthropocene era. In order to highlight its prospects, this article proposes to call this strategy “regenerative diversification.”