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Two emerging agritourism trends

We've observed two trends in our recent work with our agritourism clients.

Most agritourism businesses began as multi-generational production farms that transitioned to agritourism to generate additional income. For many farmers, agritourism has grown so much that it now accounts for most of their farm's earnings. The United States Department of Agriculture reports that women now account for 36% of all U.S. agricultural producers, and 58% of all U.S. farms report at least one female producer making decisions about the farm's operation. In our work, we've observed that at many of these farms, the most recent adult generation of women is taking the lead in developing, running, and growing the agritourism.

The second trend we've observed is that people are leaving professional and corporate careers to buy land or existing farms to start agritourism businesses. Many are couples, with one or both coming from the corporate or professional world, or are individuals, including women.

Their motivations for leaving their former white-collar careers include a desire for purposeful work, sustainability, regenerative agriculture, and wellness-focused lifestyles. Agritourism experiential hospitality draws on design and guest-experience skills that many corporate professionals already possess. Post-pandemic demand for outdoor, rural, authentic, and wellness-centric experiences has made agritourism more financially appealing, helping them justify a career shift away from higher-earning work. They most often use their story of leaving corporate work for purpose, health, or family as the narrative in their marketing to attract urban guests and justify premium pricing.

All our current agritourism clients are in one of the two categories.

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