Defining agritourism: A comparative study of stakeholders' perceptions in Missouri and North Carolina

Agritourism is not a recent phenomenon; furthermore, it has considerably increased in the past ten years and is projected to continue growing in the future. Despite such growth, there is not a shared understanding of agritourism which is problematic as this creates confusion and lessens its appeal among consumers, further hindering communication and collaboration among stakeholders. Therefore, a study was conducted in 2011 to identify preferred definitional elements and types of agritourism activities across residents, farmers, and extension faculty in Missouri and North Carolina (U.S.). Results showed that “agricultural setting”, “entertainment”, “farm”, and “education” should be included in a good definition of agritourism. Respondents also agreed that agritourism includes staged or authentic activities carried out on working agricultural facilities. All stakeholder groups rejected to consider activities offered in non-working farms or where the agricultural setting only serves for background purposes as agritourism. Statistical tests showed significant differences on agritourism definitional elements and types across groups, results that are further discussed. Besides advancing the understanding of the meaning of agritourism, this study carries important implications for the practice of agritourism.