Characteristics of Agricultural Tourism in the AL-Qassim Region

The study focuses on researching the characteristics of agricultural tourism in the AL-Qassim region, and the research aims to identify how agricultural tourism originated in the AL-Qassim region, identify the characteristics of tourist farms, and indicate the geographical distribution pattern of agricultural tourism in the region. The study used the descriptive method and the spatial analytical method to clarify the spatial and geographical distribution and analysis of agricultural tourism centers in the AL-Qassim region, and followed the comprehensive inventory method in the study of tourist farms in the AL-Qassim region, and relied on the data available at the Ministry of Tourism and field survey of tourist farms, interviewing their owners, and relying on the Global Positioning System (GPS) in locating tourist farms with high accuracy. He also used the statistical (quantitative) method and the cartographic method to detect the geographical distribution of agro-tourism areas and the neighborhood relevance coefficient in data processing. The study has reached a set of results, the most important of which are: the AL-Qassim region is one of the first regions of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the field of agricultural tourism, as its official and actual beginnings were since 2012; AL-zinaidi farm (rural inn) - as the first tourist farm- The number of tourist farms in the region has developed until it reached (29) farms in 2021.the geographical distribution pattern of tourist farms takes a convergent pattern, and it also takes a clustered form. the study found that tourist farms are concentrated in the eastern part of the Qassim region. the study recommended encouraging tourist farms to diversify their activities, hold attractive events for tourists, and stimulate old farms to invest and enter into agricultural tourism.