Grasslands are an essential element of sustainable farming systems and are acknowledged as having economic, ecological, social and cultural roles. In many areas raising animals in a grassland-based system is providing farmers with a decent income while in others the only way for farmers to stay in agriculture is to 'cultivate' tourists through agritourism and ecotourism. Agritourism is a particular form of rural tourism, i.e. farmers provide on-farm activities connected to farming. Grassland in a diversified landscape provides an added value for tourists and is the most important resource for tourism development having a greater aesthetic and recreational potential than uniform agricultural areas both in lowlands and mountains. Consumers often perceive food products from extensive and organic grassland-based agriculture as of higher quality. Nature-based tourism (ecotourism) where people visit rural areas characterized by high species and habitat diversity is also an important source of additional income to farmers. Ecotourism generates many economic benefits for local communities and activities related to farming are more attractive, such as the direct sale of products labelled as coming from Natura 2000 sites. Tourism may also have negative impacts when the number of tourists is large or the resources are overused.
