America's Changing Farmscape: A Study of Agricultural Tourism in Michigan*

*We dedicate this article to Sandra Hill, who was an early and persuasive supporter of agritourism in Michigan. Sandy wore many “hats” well: farmer, state legislator (1/1993–12/1996), MDA employee, and agritourism activist. Many will miss her.

This project was conducted jointly by researchers in the Geography Department of Western Michigan University and by the Michigan Department of Agriculture. Funding for the project was made possible through a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture. We are very grateful for this support. We also wish to thank the editor and the four anonymous reviewers whose comments significantly improved this article.

Abstract

Agricultural tourism incorporates visits to farms for the purposes of on-site retail purchases, enjoyment, and education. Long popular in the European Union (EU), agritourism is gaining popularity throughout the United States. Interest has grown as a result of stagnant grain prices, rising farm costs, and growing international competition. For rural areas seeking new economic options, the potential of these operations to generate new sources of income through sales and horizontal linkages to other tourism-based activities has sparked interest beyond the farm gate. This article, based on a survey and a statistical analysis of 300 agritourism operations in Michigan, summarizes factors associated with successful operations.

Key Words:

• agritourism
• Michigan
• rural development

Notes

Source: Generated by the farm surveys.

Source: Summarized from the farm surveys.

Note: The total number 290 reflects the fact that responses were not provided on some of the 301 useable surveys.

Source: Survey data.

Source: Generated by survey data.

Notes: Dependent variable: net income per operation.

R²=.587, F=23.743, significant at .0001.

n=64 farm operations (cases).

¹ In 2002, Sandra Hill of the MDA developed a mailing list of more than 2,000 agritourism operations. Although many of these did not respond to the survey or were returned due to change of address, they were operating and at one time responded to MDA inquiries or advertised in the Yellow Pages. Hill believed she was able to identify only half of the operating firms and that the actual number might be around 4,000 businesses. This was only an estimate on her part.

² The term “farm market” is somewhat problematic. In this study, the term is used to denote family farm operations that sell many more products than are actually produced on the farm. A family may produce ten to fifteen varieties of vegetables but sell thirty—buying the rest wholesale or from other farmers. Our “farm market” category must be distinguished from Farmers Markets held several times a week in most cities and towns in the United States during summer and fall.

*We dedicate this article to Sandra Hill, who was an early and persuasive supporter of agritourism in Michigan. Sandy wore many “hats” well: farmer, state legislator (1/1993–12/1996), MDA employee, and agritourism activist. Many will miss her.

This project was conducted jointly by researchers in the Geography Department of Western Michigan University and by the Michigan Department of Agriculture. Funding for the project was made possible through a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture. We are very grateful for this support. We also wish to thank the editor and the four anonymous reviewers whose comments significantly improved this article.