Agritourism in the West: Exploring the Behavior of Colorado Farm and Ranch Visitors

Agritourism represents a significant part of the tourism industry in the Intermountain West, and is poised to become increasingly important in Colorado. Nationwide, 106 rural counties employed more than 1,000 people in travel and tourism jobs, with some recording 90% of total employment in that industry (Wilkerson, 2003). According to 2002 US Census of Agriculture data, farm and ranch businesses in Colorado derived over $12 million in income from recreational sources. Recreation contributes more than 5% to producers’ total farm income in 6 Colorado counties (Wilson, Thilmany and Watson, 2006; US Census of Agriculture, 2002). Moreover, these are conservative estimates of agritourism-based income for Colorado, given that the USDA survey focused only on fishing- and wildlife-based activities, to the exclusion of agritainment, heritage, culinary and off-farm agritourism enterprises. There has been limited empirical research on the agritourism industry to date. The majority has been somewhat anecdotal, relying primarily on case-studies and startup guides. Brown and Reeder (2007) use national data from the 2004 Agricultural Resource Management Survey to provide summary descriptive information about the extent of the farm recreation industry and the likelihood of farmer involvement in an on-farm recreation business. Carpio et al. (2006) use data from the 2000 National Survey on Recreation to develop a travel cost model to examine the value of the rural landscape. Bernardo et al. (2004) use the same national survey to explore visitor characteristics and various expenditure patterns for enterprises in Kansas; something we also try to address in our study of Colorado. The work of Wilson et al. (2006) focuses on unique characteristics of county-level agritourism data, including natural amenities and other perceived public goods that might add to each county’s agritourism revenue stream. The West has experienced growth in tourism planned around agricultural and food enterprises, as well as agricultural heritage sites. Colorado State University (CSU) researchers needed to understand the tastes and preferences of visitors to and within Colorado who participate in agritourism, as well as visitor incidence and travel expenditures to assist agritourism providers. Although this research was targeted at Colorado, the methods and findings will be useful to a broad set of Western researchers, agricultural businesses and regional economic development staff. This paper will summarize CSU’s consumer-based research on agritourism by providing the following: an overview of agritourism; a general description of travelers; an explanatory model of visitors’ agritourism planning; a model analyzing factors affecting the level of travel party expenditures on agritourism; and a classification of agritourists that will better illustrate the diversity and priorities of those who visit agritourism enterprises.