Instructions for the prototype design of a minimum viable agrotourism product for the goat economic sector

Abstract

Countryside tourism is a global economic trend and an alternative for economic development for the agricultural sector, which is promoted by the National Government through Law 2239 of 2022, which basis in one of its specific objectives is the design of tourism products as a solution to benefit municipalities with an agricultural vocation.
Capitanejo, a municipality located in the east of the department of Santander, has been selected as an object of study for the design of an agrotourism product that benefits the goat economic sector. However, as the Colombian saying goes, “from word to deed there is a long way to go”, designing a tourism product is talking about an intangible, experiential, emotional and incomprehensible product, even for the resident communities, whose empirical knowledge about tourism refers to the basic concept of traveling from one place to another, taking economic advantage of visitors and tourists.
Therefore, an agrotourism product prototyping instruction is designed under the guidelines of the Design Thinking tools, design of tourist experiences, significant cultural identity of the natural and cultural heritage of the municipality, Canva business model, good sustainability practices and chain of value of the tourism and goat economic sectors, as a model of the innovation process for the goat farming guild, inviting to generate teamwork networks to co-create agrotourism experiences as an economic alternative for family businesses in this economic sector.

But there is a long way from saying to doing, as the Colombian saying goes. Designing a tourism product is talking about an intangible, experiential, emotional and incomprehensible product even for resident communities, whose general knowledge about tourism is the concept of traveling from one place to another and taking economic advantage of visitors and tourists.

In this way, we have the municipality of Capitanejo, located in the department of Santander, as an object of study for the design of a prototype of an agrotourism product based on goat farming, which consists of an innovation process model that guides the union of goat farming companies towards networking to link agrotourism activities as an economic alternative for famiempresas (family businesses) of this economic sector.

This is a model to replicate that is designed based on the tools of Design Thinking, design of tourist experiences, marketing mix of Philip Kotler, analysis of the significant identity of the natural and cultural heritage of the municipality, CANVA business model, good practices of sustainability, and value chain of economic sectors such as tourism and goat sector, which resulted in a methodology for designing the agrotourism product to strengthen the goat economic sector at the national level.