Agritourism is a style of vacation in which hospitality is offered on farms. This may include the opportunity to assist with farming tasks during the visit. Agritourism is often practiced in wine growing regions, as in Italy, France and Spain. In America, Agritourism is wide-spread and includes any farm open to the public at least part of the year. Tourists can pick fruits and vegetables, ride horses, taste honey, learn about wine, shop in gift shops and farm stands for local and regional produce or hand-crafted gifts, and much more. Each farm generally offers a unique and memorable experience suitable for the entire family.

The world-wide directory of agri-tourism farms is at Agritourism World[1]. Agritourism World has a powerful search engine to find farms to visit, offers free listings to farms, and contains articles and help to improve a farm to attract tourists. See: http://www.AgritourismWorld.com

Agritourism is being developed as a valuable component of a business model to support many agricultural entities when the farm products they produce are no longer economically competitive otherwise.

An example of an agritourism enterprise can be found in Lansing, New York at Indian Chimney Farm[2], where alpaca, horses, goats, waterfalls, gorges, gardens and more are open during their annual fall special event weekends. A small alpaca gift shop with fine alpaca apparel and other locally handcrafted gift items helps to sustain the farm. http://www.IndianChimneyFarm.com

Dude ranches offer tourists the chance to work on cattle ranches and sometimes include cattle drives.

See also ecotourism, agricultural sustainability .

External links

Agritourism World - world-wide directory of agri-tourism farms
Lunigiana Agritourism in Lunigiana