Written by Elodie Reed, University of Vermont, and reprinted with permission.
A new national agritourism study has been released by the University of Vermont and U.S. Department of Agriculture in partnership with the National Extension Tourism Network. Findings show that while three-quarters of respondents increased farm revenue through agritourism, many farmers report needing more help with funding, infrastructure, marketing assistance and visitor data collection.
“Seventy percent of responding farms wanted support in the form of grants and financial resources, which is not surprising given that there are almost no dedicated grant programs for agritourism, which can require upfront investment,” said UVM Center for Rural Studies Research Specialist Claire Whitehouse, one of the study’s authors. “Many wanted to make their spaces safer and more accessible to visitors, creating pathways and parking areas, building a visitor bathroom, or making an existing bathroom ADA-compliant.”
Data were collected through short and long national surveys and in-depth interviews with 10 farms around the country, between 2023 and 2026. It builds on the first in-depth national agritourism survey from 2019-2020 as well as the 2024 survey led by Penn State. Findings from all three studies indicate that farms across the United States are welcoming people onto their land, inside their barns, and into their homes, not only to diversify their income, but to connect with their neighbors.
“Some farms don’t have making money as their primary goal,” said UVM Extension Professor Lisa Chase, who led the UVM studies. “They are motivated by educating visitors and building community. In rural places, sometimes farms are the best spaces for communities to come together.”
Which rural place might determine how easy or hard it is for agricultural operations to invite visitors on-site. The new national agritourism study shows that regulations vary across states.
“Ninety percent of respondents from Oregon and 78% of respondents from California said they experienced challenges with regulation, compared to 46% of respondents from Maine,” Whitehouse said. “It’s important for us to look to these lessons from other states in the midst of the conversation Vermont is having around Act 181.”
The practice of humans getting together around the production of food is an ancient one. For example: Native peoples like the Abenaki and Ojibwe have marked early spring with maple sugaring since time immemorial. But the term “agritourism,” and farms offering tourism experiences, is relatively new.
Because of that, Chase said the customer service, hospitality and marketing pieces can be challenging for farmers used to production agriculture.
Both Chase and Whitehouse see opportunities for strengthening these skillsets. They said technical assistance could help farmers as well as researchers in gathering the consumer data needed to understand what draws visitors to farms, and what’s worth investing in.
“First of all, helping farmers decide, ‘Do I even want to move into agritourism?'” Chase said. “And for those that do, providing training, resources and support, focusing on: who is coming to your farm, who do you want to come to your farm, and how do you reach out to different potential markets?”
A webinar to discuss the new national agritourism study and its findings is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. EST on Oct. 6, 2026. Registration is open now.