The study estimates a logit model to identify factors influencing adoption of agritourism by small farmers in North Carolina using a survey. All variables included in the model were dummies and of these having at least a college education has the greatest impact on participating in agritourism, followed by race, public access to the farm for recreation, farms with more than 50 acres of land deemed unsuitable for crop production, and the total amount of land owned. Other factors such as farms near cities, willingness to pay for farm management advice, and before-tax household income also significantly influenced the adoption of this enterprise.

Case study research was undertaken as an initial step towards studying the critical factors that influenced the adoption of agritourism as an additional enterprise by small farmers in North Carolina. The unit of analysis in this study was the principal operator of the farm that provided agritourism services. Human factors such as age, gender, household income before taxes, and ethnicity and educational background of principal operator were perceived to be the most common elements. Production variables such as total acreage deemed unsuitable for crop production, the farm organization, economic situation of the farm and the geographic location of the farm and access to internet were also deemed to be common features. The need to generate additional income was often cited among the goals of operators in adding agritourism to their farm operations. Most operators charged activity-based fees and cited weather and liability issues as the principal challenges to their agritourism enterprises. They had a more positive outlook for their individual agritourism business than they had for the industry as a whole in the state.

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