Diversification through ‘fun in the farm’: analyzing structural factors affecting agritourism in Tennessee

Abstract

With recent development, agritourism – visiting a working agricultural setting such as farm and ranch for leisure, recreation, or educational purposes – is gaining popularity in the US. Agritourism can be considered as a viable alternative agricultural enterprise to enhance income and sustainability of farms. This study maps agritourism locations and analyzes the structural factors affecting agritourism location and establishments. Using zip-code level location information, county-level data from Tennessee and spatial regression models, we found significant effects of rural factors, demographics, and educational-, economic-, and cultural- capital factors and their interactions on the location and establishment of agritourism farms. The counties lagging behind in agritourism can focus on educational and capital related factors to enable farms to participate in agritourism activities. Rural areas can capitalize the recreational and natural aspects of agriculture complementing it with agritourism activities. Additionally, our significant spatial terms and tests suggest for the need to test and account for potential spatial effects on studies focused on structural factors and location decision models.