Burlington--The Agritourism Research and Extension Collaborative, with origins at the University of Vermont (UVM), recently was recognized for its work to advance agritourism nationally. 

The collaborative received a Partnership Award (multistate category) from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The award honors the collective efforts of Vermont and more than a dozen other states in developing and conducting the first national survey of agritourism operators and subsequent projects, including the establishment of a national network of producers, researchers, Cooperative Extension personnel and others working in agritourism.

Award recipients from UVM include Dr. Lisa Chase, UVM Extension; David Conner, Department of Community Development and Applied Economics; and Claire Whitehouse, Center for Rural Studies. Chase served as team leader for the survey project and for the collaborative.

The online survey, disseminated in collaboration with colleagues at the National Extension Tourism Network, between November 2019 and February 2020, received responses from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. It provided detailed data on producer motivations and challenges, farm profitability, firmographics and demographics, resulting in important implications for policy and outreach related to agritourism.

While in the planning stages, the survey was presented at the First World Congress on Agritourism, hosted by Eurac Research in Bolzano, Italy, in 2018. This generated interest by researchers outside the United States in adapting and expanding the survey and led to the formation of the International Research Network on Agritourism. The international survey has since been conducted in Italy, Brazil and other countries.

According to Chase, “At the same time we were planning, conducting and analyzing the national survey, we had another NIFA-funded project in the works, the International Workshop on Agritourism (IWA).” The 2022 conference, held virtually and in-person in Burlington, Vermont, attracted 504 participants from 56 countries and 44 U.S. states and territories.

The IWA led directly to the formation of the Global Agritourism Network, an international network of farmers, tourism professionals, researchers, agricultural service providers, cooperative Extension personnel, policymakers and others involved in agritourism.

“We also introduced Agritourism Gatherings, a webinar series to encourage discussion and networking on various agritourism topics,” Chase says. “Between September 2020 and May 2022, the webinar series, which is still ongoing, reached a total of 2,616 unique registrants representing all 50 states and D.C. as well as 81 additional countries.”

These initial collaborations have resulted in subsequent NIFA-funded multistate agritourism projects. They include a grant to create an effective support system for small and medium-sized farm operators to succeed in agritourism and three USDA NIFA Extension Risk Management Education projects focused on safety assessments on Northeast farms during the COVID-19 pandemic, agritourism business planning and expansion of diversification options for Northeast agritourism. These projects also have led to new outreach and educational tools, including an agritourism networking map, hosted by the National Extension Tourism Network.

“Before collaborating on the survey, members of our team were often siloed within their own states as one of the few researchers or extension professionals working on agritourism at their institutions,” Chase concludes. “We are now integrated into regional, national and international networks working to improve farm viability for agritourism operators and expand opportunities for economic development and quality of life improvements, while also providing agricultural education for consumers.”