Agritourism and Quality-of-Life for Farmers

Abstract

Agritourism is growing in popularity throughout the United States of America, Europe, and many other countries around the world. By blending tourism with agriculture, agritourism enterprises allow farmers to diversify core operations and keep farmland in production while educating visitors, preserving scenic vistas, and maintaining farming traditions. However, agritourism comes with challenges and is not for every farm. It requires different skills than traditional farming operations, and farmers interested in agritourism often have difficulty finding support for technical assistance and networking opportunities to ensure best practices.

This case study examines the impacts of agritourism on the quality-of-life (QOL) of farmers in the Northeastern region of the U.S. Survey findings indicate that agritourism can have both positive and negative impacts on QOL; however the positive impacts outweigh the negative impacts for many farmers. Specifically, the personal satisfaction gains are typically greater than concerns about extra time required for agritourism enterprises. These findings have important implications for helping farmers and rural communities develop agritourism in ways that emphasize positive impacts and minimize potential negative effects. Methods and findings from this case study can be readily transferred to other locations to examine quality-of-life impacts of agritourism on farmers in a variety of settings around the world.