Vol. I, No. 1, March 2023
The agritourism industry is large and growing
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that in 2021 there were 2,300,754 family farms in the U.S. They define a family farm as any farm or ranch where the majority of the business is owned by an operator and by related individuals to any of the operators. Family farms account for 98% of all farms.
The USDA found that in 2021, 69,000 family farms exclusively or partially engaged in agritourism activities which include:
- Recreation, such as hunting, fishing, or horseback riding
- Hospitality, such as housing overnight guests (such as at a B&B) or guided tours
- Entertainment, such as festivals, rodeos, or petting zoos
Direct-to-consumer sales at farmers markets, roadside stands, on-farm markets, and u-pick are not included as the USDA did not define them as agritourism. However, 15% of agritourism farms do offer some form of direct-to-consumer sales in addition to their agritourism offerings. If farms with only direct-to-consumer sales were included, we estimate the agritourism industry probably exceeds 90,000 farms.
Southern Belle Farm, one of our agritourism clients
The USDA found that between 2020 and 2021, farm participation in agritourism increased by approximately 10,000 farms, a one-sixth growth in one year.
Agritourism is a huge industry. There are almost 12 times as many USDA-defined agritourism farms as movie theaters, including drive-ins (5,798), and 24 times as many bowling centers (2,829).
With agritourism's rapid growth likely to continue, it is serious competition to other types of location-based entertainment businesses.
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