92 K. Firlej, A. Niedzió‡ka STOWARZYSZENIE EKONOMISTÓW ROLNICTWA I AGROBIZNESU Roczniki Naukowe tom IX zeszyt 2 Krzysztof Firlej, Arkadiusz Niedzió‡ka Cracow University of Economics, Agricultural University in Cracow AGRITOURISM AS A FACTOR OF LOCAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE MALOPOLSKA REGION AGROTURYSTYKA JAKO CZYNNIK ROZWOJU REGIONALNEGO W WOJ. MA£OPOLSKIM S‡owa kluczowe: region ma‡opolski, agroturystyka Key words: Malopolska Region, agritourism Abstract. The article presents the results of research on the agrotourist entrepreneurship. Such entrepreneurship is understood, among other things, as rural service providers inclination towards self organization of agrotourist associations, willingness to cooperate with farmers running agrotourism farms, foreign language skills and intention of making use of European Union funds. Introduction Changeable social and economic realities in country are sympathetic towards revitalizing entrepre- neurship in rural areas. Individual features of people, especially their competence and experience are very important in the development of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is often characterized by entrepreneurs personality, taking into account his features like: resources, initiative, enterprise or system used in the process of management [flmija 1999]. The significance of institutional surrounding, as an important factor of entrepreneurship development is also a significant issue of entrepreneurship creation [Makarski 2002]. One form of entrepreneurship which is increasingly taken up by farmers is agrotourism. It is concerned with organizing tourists stay on functioning farms. Its aim is economic elicitation of rural areas. Agrotourism can meaningfully influent the economic development of places and communities and can play significant role in widely understood local development. Entrepreneurship of agrotourist service providers manifests itself in rural tenderers forming the agrotourist associations. Membership in these organizations is taking place mainly for effective and cheaper promotion. The entrepreneurships features are also noticeable in farmers cooperation with a view on increasing their tourist activity (tourists exchange and common promotion) and in making attractive the vacationers leisure time spending (organization of different recreational services). Out of already mentioned agrotourist associations, called Agricultural Extension Centres, local authorities in communities and regional branches of Agency for Restructurization and Moderniza- tion of Agriculture play important role in the development of agrotourist entrepreneurship. The Agency is the institution of European Union funds implementation, with a view on setting up or developing agrotourist services, too. Range, aim and methodology of research The aim of the paper is the presentation of agrotourist entrepreneurship as the form of non  agricultural activity which is taken up by farmers in the Malopolska Region. In the descriptive part of the article the number of agrotourism farms and the role of different institutions in the creation of agrotourist entrepreneurship is presented. In the empirical part we present the results of research conducted among 365 farmers providing agrotourist services in the Malopolska Region. The criterion of farmers selection was the choice of agrotourism farms, which were located in districts characterized by the highest number of tourist objects. The research was performed based on authors questionnaire of interview.