1 Agricultural Globalization and Rural Tourism Development in Taiwan

Initially, Taiwan’s agriculture industry was slow to become international. However, since joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) at the beginning of 2002, the internationalization of Taiwan’s agriculture has become more intensive. Along with this development, Taiwan’s rural tourism has also advanced. In the later stage of agricultural internationalization, when Taiwan joioed the WTO, Taiwan’s agricultural production and exports became more difficult. A greater number of agricultural products, and larger volumes, were imported. Farm land shifted use to leisure and recreation purposes and more farmers changed their occupations to tourism and associated services. This study uses government documents, data reported in the literature and the results of interviews with owners of rural tourism enterprises to support the argument that rural tourism has development in Taiwan as a way of adapting to the process of agricultural transformation. Rural tourism developed significantly when Taiwan’s agriculture production and marketing became more difficult due to the process of agricultural globalization, particularly under the effect of joining the WTO. Finally this paper has comments on the prospects and limitations for the development of rural tourism in the future of Taiwan. Key words: agricultural globalization, rural tourism, Taiwan. 1