Visitors Look Around and Leave? 9 Things That Make Families Stay Longer and Spend More on Your Farm
In September 2023, USA Today readers voted Libby & Son U-Picks in Limerick, Maine, the best apple orchard in America.
Owner Aaron Libby later said the national attention helped drive record attendance. Then, in 2025, the farm announced it would not open for the season. (It later announced it would open for just two Saturdays in October, selling fruit only.) Rising costs, plus the extra restrooms and staff a pick-your-own farm needs, had outrun the money coming in. Looking back, Libby said the farm might have opened that season if it had charged entry fees.
Read that again. The orchard America voted No. 1 had more visitors than ever and still couldn't make the numbers work.
So here is the answer to the headline. Families leave early and spend little when your farm gives them nothing to do after the main activity. They stay longer and spend more when you give them nine farm visitor amenities, in the order they need them: a clear welcome and map, clean toilets, shade, seating, things for kids, food and drink, photo spots, timed activities, and a shop at the exit.
The Short Answer: Crowds don't pay your bills. Spend per family does, and spend per family rises with time on your farm. Make the visit comfortable (toilets, shade, seats), give every age something to do (kids' play, timed shows, photo spots), put food in the middle of the day, and put your shop on the only path back to the car. |
I'm Stephen Loke of AgritourismSuccess.com, whose farm is featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun. The "look around and leave" problem is one of the most expensive mistakes a visitor farm can make. The fix is rarely more marketing. It is what happens after the family parks.
Why Time on Your Farm Is the Number That Pays You
Retail researcher Paco Underhill, in his book Why We Buy, ranks the time a shopper spends in a store as perhaps the biggest single factor in how much they buy.
A 2024 study in the Journal of Air Transport Management tracked passenger time at 89 U.S. airports. It found that 10% more time in the terminal went with about 8% more food and drink sales and about 6% more shop sales.
Look at which line moved most. Food and drink. That matters, because food is where farm visitors already spend.
In a Wisconsin consumer study by Brown and Hershey (2012), median spending on the last agritourism trip was $137.50. Of the people who spent money, 93.8% spent it on food or drink made by an agritourism business.
Oklahoma State University Extension surveyed 116 visitors at four farms from October to December 2014. The median visit was a little more than an hour. But at the corn maze farm with several other activities, 29 of 51 visitors said they stayed two hours or more. At the Christmas tree farm and the winery, nobody did.
The sample is small, so treat it as a clue. But the message is clear: give people more to do and more comfort, and they stay. Let them stay, and they spend.
(For why people come at all, read what tourists really want when they visit a farm.)
What an Extra $10 Per Family Is Really Worth
Here is a simple illustration. It multiplies an extra amount spent per family by the families you host in a season. It is not a forecast. It assumes the extra comes from food, drink, photos or the exit shop, and it shows sales before costs.
Families per season | +$5 per family | +$10 per family | +$15 per family | +$20 per family |
1,000 | $5,000 | $10,000 | $15,000 | $20,000 |
2,500 | $12,500 | $25,000 | $37,500 | $50,000 |
5,000 | $25,000 | $50,000 | $75,000 | $100,000 |
10,000 | $50,000 | $100,000 | $150,000 | $200,000 |
At 2,500 families, an extra $10 each (a cider and a donut, say) is $25,000 from people who were already on your farm.
Profit depends on margins, so start with high-margin items. My guide to upsells that double your agritourism revenue shows how.
Reality Check: More visitors is not the same as more money. In a national survey led by the University of Vermont, over 25% of responding farms made no profit from agritourism, or ran it at a loss, in 2018. If your farm is busy but your bank account isn't, look at spend per family before chasing more families. Is agritourism profitable? walks through the full picture. |
The Visitor-Flow Layout: One Loop, Shop Last
Most farms grow by adding things wherever there is space. The toilets end up behind the barn, and the shop sits beside the car park where families can skip it.
A better agritourism visitor experience is laid out like a story. Each stop answers the next need a family feels, which is how you keep farm visitors longer without building anything big.
You don't need to rebuild. Often it means moving the food truck, adding three picnic tables under a tree, and roping a path so it ends at your shop door. My guides on choosing the best location on your farm for agritourism activities and How to Encourage Visitors to Your Farm: 21 Ways That Work (With Costs) show placement tips and rough costs.
Now, the nine things.
No. 1: A Clear Welcome and a Simple Map
People who feel lost leave early.
Picture a family stepping out of the car. They don't know where to pay, where the toilets are, or what there is to do. Anxious people don't browse. They do the one thing they came for and go home.
Retailers call the first few feet inside a shop door the "decompression zone." People are still adjusting, and Paco Underhill warns that some of what you put by the door gets blown past. Your gate works the same way. Don't throw ten signs at people. Give them one warm human and one big map.
Mississippi State University Extension tells new agritourism farms to post signs for restrooms, first aid, tickets and food.
The best farms treat the welcome as part of the show. Chudleigh's in Milton, Ontario, drew about 8,000 visitors a day at its August-to-October peak, Fruit Growers News reported in 2020. Tom Chudleigh's reminder to a visiting group of fruit growers: "Remember this is entertainment."
Field-Tested Play: On busy days, put a greeter at the entry with a three-line script: "Welcome! Toilets are just there. The next wagon ride is at 2 pm. Food and shade are in the middle, and the shop is on your way out." Beside them, stand a big map board with a "You Are Here" dot and those four things marked in large letters. |
For more, read how to make visitors feel welcome on your farm and how to speak to farm visitors.
No. 2: Clean Toilets and Handwashing
If I could fix only one thing on most farms, it would be this. When university researchers ask farm visitors what matters most, restrooms keep coming out near the top.
Wisconsin (Brown and Hershey, 2012): the three most important amenities were on-site restrooms, adequate parking and a convenient location.
Iowa (Norby and Retallick, Journal of Extension, 2012): fresh produce, on-site restrooms and a convenient location were rated important.
Florida (University of Florida IFAS, 2017): in ten focus groups in five cities, clean, non-portable restrooms were the most popular amenity mentioned.
University of Georgia (2024 national survey, 1,872 completed responses): facility cleanliness ranked among the most important attributes, followed by safety and on-site restrooms.
Why does this drive spending? A family with small children can only stay as long as the next bathroom trip allows. If the only option is one hot plastic box by the car park, the visit ends when the first child needs it.
White Hutchinson Leisure and Learning Group, which consults on and designs agritourism farms, points to the "ick factor" of portable toilets. Many of its clients have added permanent restrooms, and it calls restroom trailers the closest thing to a permanent restroom. On farms with large areas, such as festival grounds, it says two small restroom buildings or trailers spread out are often better than one big one.
Handwashing matters just as much near animals. CDC guidance for animals in public settings says signs should direct visitors to handwashing stations when they leave animal areas, with hand sanitizer only as a backup when soap and water can't be provided. See why only 3 in 10 visitors wash their hands.
Field-Tested Play: On busy days, do an hourly "toilet walk" with a checklist: paper, soap, water, bin, smell, floor. Sign and time a sheet on the door. Visitors notice, and your staff get a clear job. |
Reality Check: Toilets cost real money. Libby & Son needed restrooms and extra workers, costs a regular farm doesn't carry, the Portland Press Herald reported. That's why you need the rest of this list. Toilets let families stay. Food, photos and the shop are how that time pays for the toilets. |
No. 3: Shade
Heat sends families home. In the Florida focus groups, shade (or air conditioning) was one of the top three amenities people asked for. Participants also said distance from parking mattered, especially in the heat.
By 1 pm on a hot day, families are in the car with the air conditioning on, and they're not coming back out to buy cider.
Clemson Cooperative Extension lists shaded seating areas and hydration stations among the public facilities that make an agritourism farm comfortable.
Shade can be cheap: a big tree with benches, an open-sided pole barn, market umbrellas, or a pergola with shade cloth.
Carter Mountain Orchard in Charlottesville, Virginia, invites visitors to eat their cider donuts on its deck with mountain views. A comfortable spot with a view is a reason to sit, eat and order a second round.
Field-Tested Play: Walk your farm at 2 pm on the hottest day of the season. Every spot where a family would want to stop but can't, because it's in full sun, needs shade. Start with the play area and the food area. |
If you add a tent or canopy, check the rules first (see the paperwork section below), and read preparing for weather-related risks in agritourism.
No. 4: Seating
Tired people leave.
In a 2015 INSTORE magazine tips piece, Paco Underhill said that in most stores, sales would rise right away with the addition of one chair. His point: a chair tells people you care.
On a farm, you're hosting three generations at once. In the NC State University visitor study (Xu and Rozier Rich, 2012), 13% of surveyed visitors came as grandparents with grandchildren. If there's nowhere for the grandparents to rest, the whole group goes home early.
Kuipers Family Farm in Maple Park, Illinois, gets this. Its Pumpkin FunFarm page invites parents to "Sit on the sidelines with a drink in hand while the kids play."
That's the perfect money moment: kids busy, parents comfortable, a drink from you in hand.
Field-Tested Play: Put seats where the action is, not where there's spare ground. Picnic tables facing the play area. Benches beside the wagon-ride queue. Hay bales around the pig race. Every seat with a view keeps a parent on your farm a little longer. |
No. 5: Things for Kids
Children decide how long a family stays.
In the Oklahoma State survey, 81% of respondents were traveling with children. In the NC State study, "activities for children" was the second thing visitors liked most, after friendly, knowledgeable staff. The Florida focus groups listed kid-friendly activities among their top three amenities.
Kuipers Family Farm shows how this grows. Co-owner Kimberly Kuipers told Northern Public Radio that on farm visits with her own kids, they wanted to climb on everything and kept getting in trouble. So the family built what they wished other farms had. Today the FunFarm lists more than 30 attractions.
When Kuipers added a 5-acre corn maze, Kim Kuipers told Vegetable Growers News it was aimed at older kids, a part of the family the farm had been missing.
Plan for every age. Toddlers need sand, straw and small slides. Big kids need a maze or something daring. Teens need something to film.
In Cecilia, Kentucky, Thomas Dairy Farm and Market stopped milking cows about eight years ago and turned to visitors to keep the farm earning. At its sunflower festival, Spectrum News reported a 50-foot "mega slide" plus a smaller slide for younger or more cautious visitors.
Field-Tested Play: Build your kids' zone in sight of your food and seating. Parents buy more when they relax, and they relax when they can see their children. A straw-bale maze, a corn-kernel sandbox and a pedal tractor track can all start small. |
Reality Check: Play equipment brings real injury risk. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's playground handbook says grass and dirt are not protective surfacing. Check surfacing, fall zones and insurance before you open a play area. |
For ideas, see creating fun activities for kids on your farm and how smart farm owners turn simple land into a "kid magnet".
No. 6: Food and Drink
Hungry families leave. Fed families stay for another round.
With no food, families pack up at noon and eat somewhere else. With good food, lunch becomes the middle of the visit instead of the end.
One signature food can become a reason to visit. Cynthia Chiles, who runs retail and hospitality at Carter Mountain Orchard, told Virginia Living the family saw cider donuts at an orchard in the Northeast and brought the idea home. "Folks will line up to get them fresh off our fryers," she said.
You don't need a kitchen to start. Fairwinds Farm in Bowdoinham, Maine, hosts ice cream trucks and pop-up coffee shops, the Portland Press Herald reported.
In the UK, in a 2025 Farmers Weekly feature on farm shops, adviser Simon Quinton Smith said catering "should represent about 25% of turnover." That's how much food can matter.
Field-Tested Play: Pick one signature food that tastes like your farm, and make it where people can smell it: cider donuts, strawberry shortcake, sweet corn, fresh lemonade. Sell it near the play area and the shade, so families eat sitting down, not walking to the car. |
Before you sell a single pie, read selling food on your farm: permits and how to sell preserves, jams and jellies. To go bigger, try hosting farm-to-table dinners.
No. 7: Photo Spots
A photo spot does two jobs. It gives families one more stop. And it sends your farm out to all their friends.
Back in 2007, a University of Georgia extension agent noted that something as simple as a refurbished antique John Deere tractor at a farm's entrance draws people in. Families want to capture the memory of their trip, and the tractor gives them the spot.
Farmer Copleys, near Pontefract in West Yorkshire, England, runs what it calls the UK's largest pumpkin festival. Its 2026 page lists photo spots including a Pumpkin House, a "How Tall This Fall" height board, a vintage Chevy truck and a boat on the waves.
Notice the height board. It's cheap, and parents come back next year to see how much their child has grown. That's a repeat visit built into painted plywood.
In Maine, Fairwinds Farm's latest idea in 2025 was a simple face-hole cutout for photos. You don't need a big budget, just a spot that looks great on a phone.
Field-Tested Play: Put your farm's name in every photo spot: a sign on the tractor, your logo on the height board, your name on the bench in front of the sunflowers. Every shared photo becomes free advertising. Place your best spot near the end of the loop, just before the shop. |
Then read Instagram for agritourism: what actually works and how reviews turn small farms into tourist destinations.
No. 8: Timed Activities
"The next wagon ride leaves at 2 pm."
Families wait for it, and while they wait, they eat, sit and buy a drink.
Bocketts Farm Park in Surrey, England, publishes its daily timetable (as listed in November 2026): small animal encounters at 11 am, 12 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm and 4 pm, and pig racing at 12:45 pm and 3:45 pm. On term-time weekdays, its 15-minute tractor rides run at set times from noon.
There's always something next, and the last pig race keeps families on the farm into late afternoon.
White Hutchinson gave a hypothetical worked example in March 2026. A farm adds pig races and a giant hay pyramid, and the average stay rises from 2 to 2.5 hours. The catch: with the same cars arriving each hour, the farm needs about 50 more parking spaces, because cars stay longer too. A good problem, but plan for it.
Field-Tested Play: Build a daily schedule with three to five timed moments: a morning animal talk, a midday pig race or tractor ride, an afternoon demo (cider pressing, sheep shearing, honey tasting), and a "last chance" show an hour before closing. Chalk the times on boards at the entrance and the food area. |
No. 9: A Shop at the Exit
This is where all that time turns into take-home money.
After three happy hours, families want to take a piece of the day home.
An Alberta farm marketing guide by Bob Cobbledick puts the rule simply: make sure your checkout is the last thing in the market before shoppers leave.
Kuipers shows how big this can get. Northern Public Radio reported in 2018 that Kimberly Kuipers's biggest source of income was the farm's stores at the pumpkin patch and apple orchard. Today its Orchard Shop and Bakery is a 20,000-square-foot store, free to enter.
Farmer Copleys opened its farm shop in 2003. By 2022, Living North reported, the business ran a year-round farm shop, café and bakery alongside the festival.
What if the shop gets too crowded? White Hutchinson described a master-plan fix in April 2026. On quiet weekdays, visitors enter and leave through the store. On busy festival weekends, they exit to the car park through a temporary retail tent stocked with popular items and produce. Everyone still passes a till.
Field-Tested Play: Stock your exit shop with three kinds of items: something to eat in the car (donuts, fudge, apples), something to remember the day (a mug or kid's T-shirt with your farm name), and something to cook at home (jam, honey, the fruit they just picked). Put low-price kid items at child height near the till. |
Reality Check: An exit shop only works if the route goes through it. If families can walk around it, most will. Use fencing, rope lines or hedges so the main path to the car runs past the shop door. |
To build yours, read creating a farm souvenir shop, how to set up a farm stand to attract visitors and creating unique farm products to boost revenue. For small touches you can add this weekend, see simple tips to keep visitors engaged and happy.
Questions to Ask Before You Build Anything
This is not legal advice. Rules vary by state, county and country. But ask these questions before you spend money.
Food: what permit do I need, and who issues it? In the U.S., ask your state or county health department, including whether cottage food rules cover what you sell. In the UK, councils such as Leeds say new food businesses must register at least 28 days before trading, free of charge. Ask every food truck for its own permit and insurance certificate.
Play equipment: what surfacing and fall zone does it need? The CPSC's Public Playground Safety Handbook says grass and dirt are not protective surfacing, and never to use less than 9 inches of loose-fill material (6 inches for shredded rubber). For a stand-alone climber, the use zone should reach at least 6 feet in every direction.
Tents and shade structures: do I need a permit? Many U.S. fire codes follow the International Fire Code. Seattle's 2015 edition, for example, requires a permit for tents over 400 square feet (with exceptions for some open-sided tents up to 700 square feet) and a flame-resistance certificate. Permanent structures may need building permits too. See is your barn legal for visitors?
Toilets and paths: are they accessible? The U.S. Access Board's ADA guide says that where portable toilets are clustered, at least 5% in each cluster must be accessible, with an accessible route. In the UK, VisitBritain explains that the Equality Act duty is anticipatory, and you can't pass the cost of reasonable adjustments on to disabled customers. Read how to improve accessibility on your agritourism farm.
Insurance: does my policy cover food sales, play areas and animals? Ask your insurer in writing. In the University of Vermont-led national survey, 80% of farms rated insurance cost or availability as somewhat or very challenging. See agritourism insurance: what it covers and petting zoo insurance.
Signage: does my state's agritourism act require a warning sign? In many states, the agritourism act's liability protection depends on posting a warning sign with set wording. Indiana requires the warning at the main entrance to the activity, in black letters at least one inch tall. Check agritourism laws by state.
What This Looks Like at Bloopy Durians
I'm the founder of Bloopy Durians, a durian farm in Bentong, Malaysia. Our durian seasons are short, about four to five months a year (roughly December to February and June to August), so every visitor day matters.
Visitors reach the farm through a four-wheel-drive adventure, so the fun begins before anyone sees a durian tree. We keep chickens, geese, ducks and fish on the farm. Tents can also be pitched at the farm for customers.
Visitors come from all over the world: America, Canada, the UK, Germany, Russia, Australia, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Thailand and more. Many companies send their staff and management, and Taylor's University and TAR UMT have each sent a busload of students.
Families who enjoy their visit don't stop buying when they leave. We keep a WhatsApp list of loyal customers who buy durians whenever they're available. A great visit doesn't just pay on the day. It keeps paying long after.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should families stay on my farm?
There's no single right number, but more time usually means more spending. In an Oklahoma State University survey, the median visit was a little over an hour, yet 57% of surveyed visitors at the corn maze farm with several other activities stayed two hours or more. Aim for enough to fill two to three hours.
What is the most important amenity for farm visitors?
Clean restrooms. University studies from Wisconsin, Iowa and Florida, plus a national University of Georgia survey, all put restrooms among the top things visitors want. Shade, kids' activities, parking and friendly staff also rank high.
How can I increase visitor spending without raising my ticket price?
Keep families longer and give them easy things to buy. Add shade and seats near food, schedule timed shows, create a photo spot with your farm name, and route the exit through your shop.
Should my farm shop be at the entrance or the exit?
Put the checkout at the exit, so the last thing families pass is your till. On very busy days, an exit tent stocked with popular items can stop the main shop from getting jammed.
Is grass okay under a farm play area?
No. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says grass and dirt are not protective surfacing. Use proper loose-fill material at the right depth, and check local rules and your insurer.
Get Your Farm Ready Before the Gate Opens
None of this works if the basics fail on your busiest day: the toilets run out, the car park jams, the food permit isn't in place, or a child goes missing.
That's what The Visitor-Ready Farm is for. It's a 70-page ebook in 8 chapters, an instant PDF download for US$27, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Inside:
The 35-point Visitor-Ready Scorecard (about 10 minutes) to see exactly where your farm stands.
Arrival and parking, plus toilets and handwashing, including roughly how many portable toilets you need and a handwashing sizing formula.
The Hazard Walk, security and theft, and law and insurance with 12 questions for your insurer.
People and emergencies: a lost-child flowchart and a storm and heat plan.
The busiest hour: food rules to check before you sell a pie, jar or cup of cider, what to ask every food truck, why grass under a play area isn't good enough per the US CPSC, and the one number that runs your day.
A 30-day Visitor-Ready Plan, opening-day and closing-time checklists, and a Printable Toolkit of 7 signs and 8 worksheets, including a Busiest-Hour Calculator, Farm Map and Budget Planner.
This article shows what makes families stay and spend. The ebook gets the comfort and safety basics (toilets, parking, food, play areas and your busiest hour) ready before the gate opens.
Not sure where your farm stands? Take the free quiz first.
Just starting out? Grab my free 21-Point Agritourism Blueprint, and check 21 signs your farm is ready for paying visitors.
P.S. Remember Libby & Son: voted the best apple orchard in America, record crowds, then a 2025 season cut down to two Saturdays. Crowds were never the answer. What each family spends while they're on your farm is what keeps the gate open. Start with toilets and shade this season, route the path through your shop, and watch what a longer visit does to your season.
Stephen Loke of AgritourismSuccess.com, whose farm is featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun. This article is general information, not legal, insurance or financial advice. Check your own situation with local professionals.
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