Perceived Success in Agritourism: Results from a Study of US Agritourism Operators

Agritourism in the US is an emerging sector of the rural tourism economy and an increasingly popular choice for farmers interested in farm diversification. Motivations for engagement in agritourism are diverse, ranging from purely economic to social, familial, and personal. Recent studies have highlighted the benefits of agritourism for both providers and consumers, but there are still gaps in knowledge associated with success factors. To help fill these gaps, we use results from a national survey of agritourism operators to examine perceived success in achieving economic and non-economic goals. Focusing on the three goals ranked most important by agritourism operators, we apply ordinal logistic regression to measure associations between farmer -reported 'success,' farm demographics and farm characteristics. Operators who offer a broad array of products and experiences tend to perceive success across these goals. For example, operators who offer on-farm direct sales and accommodations have higher perceptions of their success at increasing revenue. Women tend to perceive less success in achieving revenue goals, highlighting an important direction of future research. These findings represent a significant contribution to the growing body of literature aimed at identifying success factors for agritourism and are valuable for agritourism operators, researchers, legislators, planners and other local decision-makers.