With an agritourism operation you are marketing an experience.  Study the agritourism market in your area, determine where you want to fit into that market, identify the customers you want to attract, and develop a plan for promotion of your agritourism operation.

Rutgers Bulletin E337, Marketing 101 for Your Agritourism Business, summarizes the basic principles of good marketing: the need to clearly understand and define the products being offered on your farm, approaches for developing appropriate pricing, the formulation of product placement strategies, and promotion.
This checklist gets you started.

New Jersey’s Right to Farm Act aims to reduce the loss of agricultural resources by limiting the circumstances under which agricultural operations may be the subject of nuisance suits and ordinances. Legally speaking, “a nuisance is a substantial interference with the right to use and enjoy land, which may be intentional, negligent or ultrahazardous in origin, and must be a result of defendant’s activity.” While recognizing the fact that there is a need to provide proper balance among conflicting interests of all lawful activities in NJ, the general intent of the act was to aid commercial farm operations. [Read more…]

It’s well established that working farms serve the public good as they are: beneficial to human health & well-being; an important component of sustainable communities; integral to conservation of natural resources & habitat; and factors in economic development & prosperity. Agritourism is a tool useful in the preservation of working farms and farmers.
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“Planners, regulators, naturalists, and environmentalists come to enjoy our rural nature agritourism amenities. Often their first comment is, ‘It’s beautiful, stop what you are doing.’ They forget it’s a working farm landscape! …that the presence of the beauty and diversity of wildlife they see is because of the farming going on, not in spite of it.”

– 6th generation NJ farmer who regularly conducts agritourism and nature tourism.

Entry into Agritourism is Complicated
Limited hospitality experience, limited investment capital, short supply of information, and a complex regulatory system impact farmers choosing agritourism. Virtually all farmers make progressive, multi-year evolving entries into agritourism. Sometimes, they conduct these activities for years before they unknowingly reach a point of being affected by particular planning policies or ordinances. They need help, not conflict.
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