How to Promote Your Farm Stand with Agritourism
You’ve built the stand, stocked the shelves, and established a customer base. But if your farm stand only exists as a place to buy things, you’re leaving a significant opportunity on the table. The farms that grow fastest aren’t just selling products — they’re selling experiences. And that’s exactly what agritourism does.
Agritourism turns your farm into a destination. It brings new customers onto your property who might never have stopped at a roadside stand, deepens loyalty with the customers you already have, and creates the kind of word-of-mouth that no paid ad can replicate. According to the USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture, farms engaged in agritourism and recreational services earned an average of $44,004 from those activities alone — nearly 60% more than the average farm earning from direct consumer sales. The opportunity is real, and for an established farm stand, the foundation is already in place.
Here’s how to use agritourism intentionally to promote your farm stand, build your audience, and grow your revenue.
After you finish this article, check out “How to Start a Farm Stand” for more helpful ideas.
Before you go further, check out our COMPLETE step-by-step Farm Stand Toolkit to launch and scale your farm stand for more income.
This article may contain affiliate links where we earn a small percent for you visiting our site at no cost to you! Also, we do not offer legal or medical advice and simply share with you our experiences with a variety of products. Read more in our disclaimer. This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to replace legal advice. Laws and ordinances vary significantly by state, county, and municipality. Please consult a licensed attorney in your area for guidance specific to your situation before opening your farm stand. Resources to help you find local guidance are listed throughout this article.
What Does Agritourism Actually Include?
Agritourism is broader than most farm stand owners realize. It’s not just u-pick operations and corn mazes. Agritourism activities fall into five broad categories: direct sales, education, hospitality, outdoor recreation, and entertainment. Your farm stand already covers direct sales. Every other category is a growth opportunity.
For an established farm stand, the most accessible agritourism entry points are educational experiences (farm tours, workshops, seed starting stations), on-farm events (seasonal festivals, harvest days, open farm days), and community partnerships (joining a farm hop, hosting school groups, collaborating with neighboring farms).
You don’t need to add all of these at once. The goal is to identify which formats fit your farm, your capacity, and your customer base — and start there.
Host an on-farm open day to introduce visitors to your operation
The simplest and highest-impact agritourism entry point for most farm stands is an open farm day — a designated time when the public is invited onto your property to see how things work, meet the people behind the products, and shop directly from your stand.
Open farm days work because they convert passive customers into invested ones. A customer who has walked your fields, fed your animals, or watched you harvest is far more likely to return, spend more, and tell others about you than a customer who only ever bought eggs from a roadside box.
Plan your first open day around a natural seasonal moment — early spring planting, summer harvest, fall pumpkin or apple season. Promote it four to six weeks in advance through your social media, email list, and any local community boards. Keep the format simple: a self-guided walk of your property, your farm stand open and fully stocked, and one or two hands-on activities for families.
Activities that consistently resonate with visitors include feeding and interacting with farm animals, seed starting stations (especially popular with children and first-time gardeners), and the opportunity to pick or harvest something directly. The hands-on element is what people remember and talk about — make sure there’s at least one.
Join or start a farm hop (or farm trail) in your area
One of the most effective agritourism formats for farm stands is the farm hop — a self-guided event that invites the public to visit multiple farms in a single day, at their own pace. Events like this create rare, tangible moments of connection, and families leave with a deeper appreciation for where their food comes from — while farms gain direct visibility, loyal customers, and the chance to tell their story.
The Crawford County Farm Hop, was organized by us and we believe it is a strong local model of what this looks like in practice. The event ran from 9am to 2pm on a Saturday in late April, was free for the public to attend, and drew nearly 200 people across participating farms in our area. Farms welcome guests to shop from their stands, interact with animals, participate in hands-on activities, and meet the people who grow their food. The event has run for three consecutive years with growing attendance and sponsor support.
If a farm hop (sometimes called a farm trail, farm tour, etc.) already exists in your area, join it. The built-in audience, shared promotion, and community credibility that come with an established event are difficult to replicate on your own. If one doesn’t exist yet, the Crawford County model is replicable — a small planning committee, a free digital welcome guide, and a self-guided format require minimal infrastructure and can be organized in four to five months. We suggest contacting your local Farm Bureau for support, as county Farm Bureaus are natural partners for events of this kind and can provide organizational infrastructure, sponsor relationships, and promotional reach. (Local Chambers of Commerce or tourism boards are another option.)
Partner with your county Farm Bureau, extension office, and chamber of commerce
The three organizations most valuable to a farm stand building an agritourism strategy are your county Farm Bureau, your local agricultural extension office, and your chamber of commerce. Each brings something different to the table.
Your county Farm Bureau has existing relationships with farms, agribusinesses, and community leaders across the county. They can help connect you to other farms for collaborative events, provide credibility for grant applications, and in some counties, actively support or co-sponsor agritourism events.
Your agricultural extension office is an often-underused resource for farm stands moving into agritourism. Extension agents can help with liability and zoning questions specific to your state’s agritourism laws, connect you with educational programming resources, assist with grant applications for direct-to-consumer and agritourism promotion, and provide research-backed guidance on what activities tend to perform well for farms of your size and type. The USDA’s Farmers Market Promotion Program offers grants ranging from $50,000 to $250,000 for projects that build capacity in direct-to-consumer market opportunities — your extension office can help you navigate whether you qualify.
Your chamber of commerce connects your farm to the local tourism ecosystem. Chambers often maintain visitor guides, tourism websites, and event calendars that can feature your farm stand and any agritourism events you host. They can also facilitate introductions to local businesses — restaurants, bed and breakfasts, and retailers — that may be interested in carrying your products or referring visitors to your farm.
Build your digital presence around the farm experience
Around 59% of agritourism bookings are now made online, and farms that invest in digital visibility see significantly higher conversion rates from visitors searching for local experiences. If your farm stand’s digital presence is limited to a Facebook page with occasional product updates, you’re likely invisible to the visitors agritourism can bring.
Start with a Google Business Profile if you don’t have one. It’s free, it places your farm on the map for searches like “farm stand near me” or “things to do on a farm,” and it allows customers to leave reviews that build credibility over time. Keep your hours, location, and contact information current and add photos regularly — Google rewards active profiles with better placement.
For events, create a dedicated landing page or section on your website that describes what visitors can expect, includes your event dates and hours, and offers a way to register or sign up for updates. A free digital welcome guide — like the one used for the Crawford County Farm Hop — serves double duty: it gives visitors a better experience and builds your email list through registration.
Social media content that performs best for farm agritourism is behind-the-scenes and seasonal. Short videos of animals, harvest activity, or event preparation consistently outperform product photos in reach and engagement. Post consistently in the weeks leading up to any event, and ask your visitors to tag your farm when they share their experience.
Create experiences that drive repeat visits and word-of-mouth
The highest-value outcome of any agritourism event isn’t the sales made that day — it’s the customers who come back and bring others. That happens when visitors have an experience worth talking about, not just a transaction worth remembering.
A few things that consistently produce that outcome:
Make it interactive for families. Children who get to feed an animal, plant a seed, or pick something from the ground create memories that parents share. Design at least one hands-on activity specifically for kids at every event you host.
Tell your story at the farm, not just online. A small framed sign near your stand’s entrance with two or three sentences about who you are and why you farm connects visitors to the people behind the products. When guests feel a personal connection to a farm, they become advocates for it.
Create a reason to return. Seasonal events, a u-pick component that changes throughout the year, a newsletter that shares what’s coming next — any of these gives a first-time visitor a reason to plan a second trip. The Crawford County Farm Hop model uses a spring event as its anchor, with recommendations in its planning guide to consider a second fall event as the program grows — a smart approach to building year-round engagement.
Make it easy to share. A well-placed sign with your social media handle, a small photo opportunity (a painted barn backdrop, a flower display, a wagon full of pumpkins), or simply encouraging visitors to tag you when they post — these prompt organic sharing that extends your reach far beyond the visitors who attend.
Protect yourself before you open your property to the public
Opening your farm to visitors creates real liability exposure that a standard farm or homeowner policy may not cover. Before you host your first public event, review your insurance coverage with your agent and confirm that agritourism activities are included or can be added.
Most states have agritourism liability protection laws that limit a farm’s liability for inherent risks — Ohio’s is codified under Ohio Revised Code 901.80. These protections typically require you to post a visible disclaimer on your property and include specific language in any promotional materials. They reduce your exposure but do not eliminate it.
Your county Farm Bureau or agricultural extension office can point you toward your state’s specific agritourism liability statute and help you understand what steps you need to take before welcoming visitors. Taking fifteen minutes to get this right before your first event is far less costly than addressing a claim after one.
Final thoughts
Agritourism is one of the most effective tools an established farm stand has for growing its customer base, deepening loyalty, and building the kind of community reputation that sustains a farm business for years. The entry point doesn’t have to be complicated — an open farm day, a seat at a local farm hop, a Google Business Profile, and a partnership with your county Farm Bureau can move the needle significantly without requiring a major time or financial investment.
The farms that grow through agritourism are the ones that treat every visitor as a potential regular — and every event as a chance to let their community see exactly what they’re building.
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