Is Agritourism Profitable? Real Numbers From U.S. Farms Show Why Half Take In Under $5,000 While the Top 23% Average $173,000

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Family picking strawberries at a U-pick farm with a red barn and farm stand, illustrating whether agritourism is profitable

The farms that win at agritourism sell an experience on the farm, then sell products while visitors are standing right in front of them.

If you are thinking about opening your farm gate to paying visitors, I want to show you something the brochures, the state tourism slideshows and the "farm stay millionaire" videos almost never mention.

In 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture counted 28,617 farms and ranches that earned money from agritourism. Together they took in $1.26 billion.

That sounds like a gold rush. For most of those farms, it isn't.

Nearly half of them (47.7%) took in less than $5,000 from visitors for the entire year. Meanwhile, a smaller group, about 23% of agritourism farms, took in $25,000 or more. That group collected 91% of all the agritourism money in America. On average, each farm in it took in roughly $173,000.

Same country. Same customers. Same census. Wildly different results.

So when you ask "Is agritourism profitable?" you are really asking a sharper question: which of those two groups will my farm end up in?

That is what this article answers. No hype and no fluffy "it depends." Here is what you will get:

The official USDA numbers on how much agritourism farms really earn, and how fast that has grown since 2002
The uncomfortable chart that shows why the "average" agritourism income misleads almost everyone
What two major university studies found when they measured actual profit, not just sales
The 7 factors that separate profitable agritourism farms from expensive hobbies (one of them surprised the researchers)
A napkin-math formula to find your break-even visitor count before you spend a dollar
Who should NOT start agritourism (read that part twice)

Let's start with the short answer. Then I'll prove it.

Quick answer: Is agritourism profitable?

Yes, agritourism can be profitable, but most farms that try it earn very little. USDA's 2022 Census of Agriculture shows 28,617 U.S. farms took in $1.26 billion from agritourism, an average of $44,004 each. Yet 47.7% took in under $5,000, while the 23% taking in $25,000 or more collected 91% of the money. Research links profit to on-farm sales, events, experience and treating agritourism as a real business.

Agritourism statistics 2022: 28,617 U.S. farms, $1.26 billion in agritourism income, $44,004 average per farm, and the top 23% of farms collecting 91% of the money

The headline numbers from USDA's 2022 Census of Agriculture. All figures are gross receipts, not profit.

Why So Many Farmers Are Asking This Question Right Now

Let me be blunt about why you are reading this.

Farming, the way most of us were taught to do it, has a math problem.

According to USDA's Economic Research Service, farms received just 11.8 cents of every dollar Americans spent on domestically produced food in 2024. The other 88.2 cents went to processors, truckers, packagers, grocery stores and restaurants.

And here is the number that should make every farm family sit up. In 2024 the median U.S. farm household earned negative $1,830 from farming. That is not a typo. More than half of farm households lost money on the farm itself. What kept the lights on was off-farm income: a median of $86,900 from jobs, pensions and other work.

Farm share of the U.S. food dollar was 11.8 cents in 2024 and median farm household income from farming was negative $1,830

Sources: USDA ERS Food Dollar Series and Farm Household Income Estimates, 2024 data.

So the farm pays for the land, the equipment and the sunburn. A job pays for the groceries.

Agritourism flips one part of that equation. When a family drives to your farm, pays to pick their own strawberries and buys a jar of jam on the way out, you are not collecting 11.8 cents. You are collecting the whole dollar. You are the grower, the retailer and the entertainment, all in one place.

That is the promise. If you want the side-by-side version, read my breakdown of agritourism vs traditional farming income. Now let's see how the promise plays out in the real numbers.

The Big Number: $1.26 Billion and Still Climbing

Every five years, USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service runs the Census of Agriculture. It asks every known farm in the country, among hundreds of other questions, how much money it earned from "agri-tourism and recreational services." That covers farm tours, hayrides, petting zoos, corn mazes, hunting and fishing access, farm stays and similar activities.

Here is what those censuses show.

Chart of U.S. agritourism income by census year, from $202 million in 2002 to $1.26 billion in 2022, with average income per agritourism farm rising to $44,004

Agritourism income has grown in every Census of Agriculture since 2002, and so has the average farm's take.

Census year	Farms with agritourism income	Total agritourism income	Average per farm
2007	23,350	$566.8 million	$24,276
2012	33,161	$704.0 million	$21,231
2017	28,575	$949.3 million	$33,222
2022	28,617	$1,259.3 million	$44,004

Source: USDA NASS Censuses of Agriculture. Not adjusted for inflation. Wineries are excluded from 2017 onward. The 2002 census reported $202 million in agritourism income.

Three things jump out.

1. The money has grown in every census. USDA's Economic Research Service reports that agritourism revenue more than tripled between 2002 and 2017, then grew another 12.4% between 2017 and 2022 after adjusting for inflation. That happened even though wineries stopped being counted in this category from 2017 on, which means the true growth is probably understated.

2. The number of farms did not grow. It was flat between 2017 and 2022 (28,575 versus 28,617). New operators came in and others left, but the club stayed the same size.

3. So the average farm's slice got bigger. Average agritourism income per farm jumped from $33,222 in 2017 to $44,004 in 2022. That is a 32% increase before inflation.

The money is also spreading across the map. ERS found that 57% of U.S. counties reported some agritourism income in 2022, with a median of $161,000 per county. The 50 biggest agritourism counties, spread across 23 states, took in $352 million, more than a quarter of the national total. Eight of those top 50 counties are in Texas. California, Colorado and Hawaii have four each.

Translation: agritourism is not a fad that is fading. The customers are there and they are spending more each census. But the money is flowing toward operators who know what they are doing. Which brings us to the chart nobody puts in the brochure.

The Number Nobody Puts in the Brochure

Averages lie. Or to be fair, averages hide.

Put a billionaire in a room with nine broke people and the "average" person in that room is a millionaire. The "average" agritourism farm earning $44,004 has the same problem.

Fortunately, the census also sorts farms into income brackets. This is the table I wish every farmer saw before building a single picnic table:

Yearly agritourism income (2022)	Farms	Share of farms	Total income	Share of income
Under $1,000	5,364	18.7%	$2.0 million	0.2%
$1,000 to $4,999	8,281	28.9%	$19.4 million	1.5%
$5,000 to $9,999	3,807	13.3%	$24.7 million	2.0%
$10,000 to $24,999	4,564	15.9%	$68.8 million	5.5%
$25,000 or more	6,601	23.1%	$1,144.4 million	90.9%

Source: USDA NASS, 2022 Census of Agriculture, United States Table 7. Gross receipts from agritourism and recreational services, not profit.

Bar chart comparing the share of agritourism farms with the share of agritourism income by income bracket, 2022 Census of Agriculture

47.7% of agritourism farms took in under $5,000 in 2022. The top 23% collected 90.9% of all agritourism income.

Read that again slowly.

13,645 farms (47.7%) took in less than $5,000 for the whole year. Their average was about $1,570. That may not even cover a liability insurance policy, never mind your time.
6,601 farms (23.1%) took in $25,000 or more. As a group they collected $1.14 billion, which works out to roughly $173,000 each on average.
The middle 29% (between $5,000 and $25,000) earned real but modest side income.

So is agritourism profitable? For the top quarter, the census suggests it is a serious business line. For the bottom half, it is a hobby that happens to have a cash box.

One important caveat. The census measures gross receipts, not profit. A farm taking in $173,000 may be spending a lot of it to earn it. So the next question is the one that matters most. (If you want to sanity-check what is realistic for your own place, see how much money you can really make from agritourism on your farm.)

But Does It Actually Make a Profit? What the Research Found

Sales are vanity. Profit is sanity. Researchers have tackled the profit question head on, and two studies are worth knowing by name.

Study 1: Rutgers University and the New Jersey farms

Economists Brian Schilling, Witsanu Attavanich and Yanhong Jin used farm-level Census of Agriculture records to compare New Jersey farms that offered agritourism with similar farms that did not. They used a statistical matching method (propensity score matching) so they were comparing like with like, then measured net cash income per acre.

Their conclusion, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics in 2014: agritourism has a statistically significant, positive effect on farm profitability.

Here is the twist most people miss. The biggest profit boost went to small farms run by people whose main occupation is farming. Smaller but still positive effects showed up for "lifestyle" farms. For large commercial farms, the effect was not statistically significant.

In plain English: agritourism helps the little guy most. A big commodity operation doesn't need it. A small working farm often does.

Study 2: The national survey of 1,834 farms

In 2021, researchers from the University of Vermont, Clemson University, Penn State and West Virginia University published the first national-scale study of agritourism profitability in the United States. They surveyed 1,834 farms, ranches and vineyards that welcome visitors, from all 50 states, then used regression analysis to see which factors were linked to higher agritourism profit.

Some findings confirm common sense. Others flatly contradict it.

Diagram of factors linked to agritourism profitability from a national survey of 1,834 U.S. farms and ranches

What the first national study of agritourism profitability found (Hollas et al., Sustainability, 2021).

Here is what those findings mean for your farm.

The 7 Factors That Separate Profitable Agritourism Farms From Expensive Hobbies

1. You decide it is a business (this was the biggest effect)

Of every motivation the researchers measured, "increase farm/ranch revenue" had the largest positive effect in the entire model, significant at the 99% confidence level. Operators who said making money mattered made more money.

That sounds obvious. It isn't. The same survey found that the most popular motivations were social interaction with the public and educating people about agriculture, with 90% of operators rating each one important. Those are wonderful reasons to open your gate. They just don't pay the insurance bill on their own.

There is nothing noble about a farm business that can't pay its own way. Decide up front that agritourism has to earn a profit, and then design every offer around that. My guide to running a profitable agritourism business without burning out shows how to do that without giving up your weekends forever.

2. Sell on the farm, not off it

Farms offering on-farm sales (farm stands, U-pick and farm stores) were significantly more profitable. Farms that leaned on off-farm sales, such as farmers markets and other selling away from the farm, were significantly less profitable from agritourism.

Farmer selling apples, honey and jam to visitors at an on-farm stand in an orchard

On-farm sales were one of the strongest profit signals in the national survey. Off-farm sales pointed the other way.

Why? When you haul product to town, you spend your weekend, your fuel and your staff somewhere other than the place where visitors pay you. When visitors come to you, every person who walks past your stand is a sale you didn't have to drive to.

The appetite is there. A Penn State analysis of the 2022 census found U.S. farms sold $3.26 billion of food directly to consumers. Put a well-stocked stand at the exit of your experience and you capture a share of that without loading a single truck. For ideas on what to add, read upsells that double your agritourism revenue without more visitors.

3. Events and entertainment beat quiet "come look around" visits

Offering events and entertainment (festivals, harvest days, corn mazes, concerts and seasonal celebrations) was significantly linked to higher profit. By contrast, lodging, educational programs and outdoor recreation on their own showed no statistically significant link to profit in that study.

Evening harvest festival with string lights, live music and long tables beside a farm barn

An evening harvest event: the kind of dated, social experience the research links to higher profit.

That doesn't mean farm stays or school tours can't work. Plenty do. It means an event gives people a date, a reason to come now and a reason to bring friends. In direct-response marketing we call that a deadline, and deadlines sell. If you need a calendar to start from, here are ideas for year-round events to keep your farm busy, and here is my comparison of pick-your-own vs guided tours.

4. Attract visitors from farther away

The share of visitors traveling 50 miles or more was positively linked to profit. A separate Virginia study, cited in a 2023 paper in Frontiers in Environmental Economics, found non-local agritourists spent an average of $34.74 per visit versus $21.65 for local visitors. That is about 60% more per person.

People who drive two hours don't come for twenty minutes. They stay longer, eat, buy and tell their friends back home. Your marketing has to reach beyond the next town, and that usually starts with Google. Here is how tourists actually find agritourism farms, and the five visibility mistakes that keep most farms invisible.

5. Experience compounds

Every additional year of agritourism experience was linked to higher profit. The average operator in the survey had almost 14 years in the business.

Two lessons. First, don't judge your farm on season one. Second, you can shorten the learning curve by borrowing other people's experience instead of paying for your own mistakes. Start with the 10 agritourism mistakes that quietly eat farm profits.

6. Location matters, but not the way you think

USDA ERS research found that farms in more populated counties tend to earn more agritourism income. So do farms in or near counties with abundant natural amenities such as mountains, lakes, forests or coastline, and farms growing grapes, fruit and tree nuts, or specialty livestock.

But in the national profit survey, distance to a city of 50,000+ people was not significantly linked to profit, and neither was the type of crop or livestock. Operators far from cities seem to compensate with stronger experiences, longer visits and better marketing.

Translation: location sets the size of your opportunity. It does not decide whether you capture it.

7. You have more pricing power than you think

This is the one most farmers get wrong.

In a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, economists Carlos Carpio, Michael Wohlgenant and Tullaya Boonsaeng estimated U.S. demand for farm recreation trips using national survey data. They measured a price elasticity of minus 0.43.

In plain English: when the price of a farm trip rises 10%, the number of trips falls only about 4%. Demand is "inelastic." Visitors care more about the experience than about a few dollars. The same study estimated that visitors received about $175 of value per trip above what the trip cost them (based on survey data from 2000).

Most small farms underprice. A farm that charges $8 when it could charge $15 isn't being generous. It is handing its profit to strangers. Read the experience premium: how to price your farm for profit, not just cost before you print a single price sign.

The surprise: what did NOT predict profit

Here is the part that should change how you plan. In the national survey, these had no statistically significant link to agritourism profit:

The total number of visitors. More bodies through the gate did not automatically mean more profit.
The number of days open per year. Being open 300 days was not a winning strategy by itself.
Distance to a city.
The type of crop or livestock.

The researchers' explanation is worth remembering: many farms stay open longer and welcome more visitors without charging each one. Busy is not the same as profitable.

Run Your Own Numbers: The Break-Even Napkin Math

Before you build anything, answer one question. How many paying visitors do you need just to break even?

Here is the formula:

Break-even visitors = yearly fixed costs ÷ (revenue per visitor minus variable cost per visitor)

And here is an illustrative example. These are made-up round numbers, so swap in your own:

Fixed costs: $10,000 a year (liability insurance, portable toilets and hand-wash stations, signs, website, ads and permits)
Revenue per visitor: a $15 admission plus $6 of profit on farm-stand purchases = $21
Variable cost per visitor: $3 (extra labor hours, supplies and card fees)
Profit per visitor: $21 minus $3 = $18
Break-even: $10,000 ÷ $18 = 556 visitors

Agritourism break-even formula example: $10,000 fixed costs divided by $18 profit per visitor equals 556 visitors

Illustrative numbers only. Run the same math with your own costs and prices.

Every visitor after #556 adds about $18. At 1,500 visitors a year, that is roughly $17,000 in profit. At 3,000 visitors, about $44,000.

Now watch what happens when you pull one lever at a time:

Lever	Example change	Profit per visitor	Break-even
Starting point	None	$18	556 visitors
Raise your price	$15 ticket to $18	$21	477 visitors
Sell more on the farm	$6 to $10 stand profit per visitor	$22	455 visitors
Cut fixed costs	$10,000 to $7,500 a year	$18	417 visitors

Illustrative numbers only, using the example above.

Raising your price is usually the fastest lever you own, and thanks to inelastic demand you probably won't lose many visitors doing it. Getting more visitors is the slowest lever. That is exactly backwards from how most farmers think. For a deeper walkthrough, see my budgeting tips for a successful agritourism business.

What the Numbers Look Like in a Few States

Agritourism income varies a lot by state, but the averages cluster closer than you might expect:

Area	Farms with agritourism income (2022)	Agritourism income (2022)	Average per farm
United States	28,617	$1.26 billion	$44,004
Texas	4,816	About $192 million	About $39,900
Georgia	About 740	About $31 million	$41,849
Oregon	507	$19 million	About $38,000

Sources: USDA NASS 2022 Census of Agriculture; Texas A&M Agricultural and Food Policy Center; University of Georgia; Oregon State University Extension. Not adjusted for inflation.

A few patterns worth noticing. Texas leads the country by a wide margin, and USDA research has found that large ranches with cattle or horses are among the operations most likely to earn agritourism income. Participation rates are highest in parts of New England and in Alaska, where 4% to 5% of farms earn agritourism income, compared with about 1.5% nationally. And even in states with modest totals, a few counties can produce outsized results. In Oregon, Grant County averaged about $2.1 million per agritourism farm.

You can look up your own state in Table 7 of the 2022 Census of Agriculture state report (link in the sources below).

The Honest Downside (Read This Before You Spend a Dollar)

I would be doing you a disservice if I only showed you the top quarter. Here is what drags farms into the bottom half:

Liability. One injured visitor can cost more than ten good seasons. Most states have agritourism liability laws, but they don't stop lawsuits and they don't replace insurance. Read what agritourism insurance covers, what it costs and how to get quotes before you invite anyone in.
Weather and seasonality. A rainy October weekend can wipe out a pumpkin patch's best week. If most of your revenue lands in six weekends, plan for losing one or two.
Your time. The hidden cost nobody puts in the spreadsheet. Weekends and holidays become workdays. Price your time or you will burn out.
Zoning, permits and health rules. They vary by county. Check before you build, not after.
Small stays small. The 47.7% who took in under $5,000 are real farms run by hard-working people. Most of them opened the gate and hoped. Hope is not a business model.

Who Should NOT Start Agritourism

Probably NOT for you if...	Built for you if...
You don't enjoy strangers on your property	You like hosting people and telling your farm's story
You want passive income	You'll treat it as a real business line with its own numbers
You can't give up weekends in your busy season	You can commit to set days, events and seasons
You plan to "open and see who shows up"	You'll market beyond your town, starting with Google
You aren't willing to charge real prices	You'll price on value and sell products on site

If most of the left column describes you, keep farming and sell wholesale with a clear conscience. If most of the right column describes you, the data says you are exactly the kind of operator agritourism rewards.

A Low-Risk Way to Find Out If It Will Work on Your Farm

You don't need to bet the farm to test this. Here is the five-step approach I recommend:

Pick one offer you can run with what you already own. A guided walk, a U-pick morning or a tasting. (See how to launch using only the infrastructure you already own.)
Price it from value, not cost. Start higher than feels comfortable. You can always run a promotion. Raising prices later is harder.
Add one product to sell on the farm. Fruit, jam, honey, eggs or a branded souvenir. On-farm sales were one of the strongest profit signals in the research.
Run it as a dated event. Give people a reason to come this Saturday, not "sometime."
Track four numbers: visitors, revenue per visitor, cost per visitor, and how far visitors traveled. Compare them with your break-even.

My 60-minute agritourism test walks you through a first run step by step, and my list of 50 agritourism activities ranked by startup cost and profit will help you pick the right first offer.

Frequently Asked Questions About Agritourism Profitability

How much money do agritourism farms make?

In the 2022 Census of Agriculture, the 28,617 U.S. farms reporting agritourism income averaged $44,004 in gross agritourism receipts. But most farms earn far less than the average. 47.7% took in under $5,000, while the 23% that took in $25,000 or more averaged about $173,000 each.

What percentage of farms do agritourism?

About 1.5% of U.S. farms (28,617 out of roughly 1.9 million) reported agritourism income in 2022. Participation is highest in parts of New England and in Alaska, where 4% to 5% of farms take part.

Which agritourism activities are most profitable?

In a national survey of 1,834 operators, on-farm product sales and events or entertainment were linked to higher agritourism profit. Lodging, education and outdoor recreation on their own showed no significant link. The best mix for your farm depends on your location and market.

Is agritourism profitable for small farms?

Often, yes. A Rutgers University study of New Jersey farms found the largest profit gains from agritourism went to small farms run by people whose main occupation is farming. Small farms benefit because visitors let them capture retail value instead of selling at wholesale prices.

How long does it take for agritourism to become profitable?

There is no official figure. The national survey found profit rises with years of experience, and the average operator had almost 14 years in the business. Start small, test one offer, and track your break-even visitor count from your first season.

Is agritourism income growing in the United States?

Yes. U.S. agritourism income grew from $202 million in 2002 to $1.26 billion in 2022, and rose 12.4% from 2017 to 2022 after adjusting for inflation, according to USDA's Economic Research Service.

The Bottom Line

So, is agritourism profitable?

The data gives a clear answer. Agritourism is profitable for farms that run it like a business, and a poor hobby for farms that don't. USDA's own census shows the money is real and growing: $1.26 billion a year. But it also shows that 91% of that money goes to the top 23% of operators.

The farms in that top group are not luckier than you. According to the research, they treat revenue as a goal, sell on the farm, run events, attract visitors from farther away, charge real prices and keep learning year after year.

Every one of those things is a decision. None of them requires you to be big, rich or near a city.

Your next step is simple. Find out where your farm stands today, then follow a plan built on what actually works.

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P.S. Remember the number 47.7%. That is the share of agritourism farms that took in under $5,000 last census. The free Farm Readiness Quiz takes a few minutes and shows you which areas of your farm are ready for paying visitors and which ones would keep you in that group.

P.P.S. Want to see exactly how real farms crossed into the top group? My guide 10 Real Farms Making Money With Agritourism breaks down how 10 farms, from Italy to Vietnam to Hawaii, turned visitors into income.

About the author: Stephen Loke of AgritourismSuccess.com, whose farm is featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun. Stephen runs a fruit farm in Malaysia that welcomes visitors from around the world, and teaches small farm owners how to build profitable agritourism businesses.