Agritourism: Motivations behind Farm/Ranch Business Diversification

Increasing financial strains on family farms/ranches have put pressure on these businesses to look outside agriculture as a means to sustain the operation. One option has been to offer farm/ranch recreation to visitors (i.e., agritourism). Eleven reasons for diversifying were tested while controlling for various demographic variables. Principal components analysis resulted in three factors: social reasons, economic reasons, and external influences. A cluster analysis identified 61% of the respondents who diversified for economic reasons, 23% who diversified due to reasons external to the operation, and 16% who diversified for social, economic, and external reasons.