Visit Iowa Farms is a signature program of the Farm, Food and Enterprise Development Program through Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. This program works with state agencies to educate Iowans on agritourism and provide resources to agritourism producers. We encourage all Iowa agritourism producers to list their destinations on our website; which serves as a search tool for agritourism destinations around the state.
Overview
Agritourism is a field that is growing in popularity as producers combine diverse agriculture and tourism. Agritourism offers a growing opportunity for agricultural producers that generally include activities including visiting a working farm or any agricultural, horticultural or agribusiness operation.
Definition
"A form of commercial enterprise that links agricultural production and/or processing with tourism in order to attract visitors onto a farm, ranch or other agricultural business for the purpose of entertaining and/or educating the visitors and generating income for the farm, operation or business owner."
-National Agriculture Law Center
- Combines the essential elements of the tourism and agriculture industries
- Attracts members of the public to visit Agricultural Operations
- Designed to increase farm income
- Provides recreation, entertainment and/or educational experience to visitors
Examples of Agritourism
Agritourism operations range from small operations that operate on a seasonal basis to larger operations that operate throughout the year. Common examples include but not limited to:
- Agricultural Museums
- Christmas Tree Farms
- Dairies
- Demonstration Farms
- Equine
- Floriculture
- Hunting & Fishing
- Corn Mazes
- Orchard
- Pumpkin Patches
- Rural Bed and Breakfasts
- Specialty Crops
- U-Picks Operations
- Vineyards/Wineries
For More Information/Resources:
The National Agricultural Law Center
AgMRC (Agricultural Marketing Resource Center)