Factors Related to Profitability of Agritourism in the United States: Results from a National Survey of Operators
Chadley R. Hollas,
Lisa Chase,
David Conner,
Lori Dickes,
R. David Lamie,
Claudia Schmidt,
Doolarie Singh-Knights and
Lindsay Quella
Additional contact information
Chadley R. Hollas: UVM Extension, University of Vermont, Brattleboro, VT 05301, USA
Lisa Chase: UVM Extension, University of Vermont, Brattleboro, VT 05301, USA
David Conner: Center for Rural Studies, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
Lori Dickes: College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA
R. David Lamie: College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA
Claudia Schmidt: Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA 16801, USA
Doolarie Singh-Knights: Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
Lindsay Quella: Center for Rural Studies, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 23, 1-17
Abstract:
Agritourism is a growing area of the tourism sector with many positive social and economic benefits for farmers, their communities, and for tourists. While researchers have been studying the phenomenon for several decades, factors that lead to profitable outcomes for agritourism operators are still not well understood, hindering the effectiveness of agritourism development and the systems of support available to farmers. Using a survey of 1834 farms and ranches open to visitors in the United States, the goal of this study is to identify the factors that influence the profitability of agritourism operations. This study shows that several factors have positive associations with increased agritourism profitability, such as the number of years of experience of the operator, farm scale (acreage and total farm revenue), providing on-farm product sales, and offering events and entertainment. Off-farm product sales and being a female operator have a negative association with profitability in agritourism. We discuss the implications of our findings on agritourism operators, suggest their utility for tourism planning and rural community development professionals, and offer suggestions for future research.
Keywords: agritourism; rural tourism; profitability; food tourism; agricultural economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)
Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/23/13334/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/23/13334/ (text/html)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:23:p:13334-:d:693244
Access Statistics for this article
Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu
More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager (indexing@mdpi.com).