Categorizing Agritourism Operations and Identifying Barriers to Success

Agritourism comprises heterogeneous firms that cannot be easily categorized. We apply principal components analysis to data in Washington state to uncover latent relationships among agritourism activities. We find most agritourism firms cluster in four groups, labelled: seasonal activities, event providers, farm and ranch tourism providers,and direct sales. A sorting mechanism assigns most firms to these groups. Using ordered logit regressions, we find that clustering and sorting reveal differences in how groups perceive barriers to success. We confirm that most firms are concerned about regulations and zoning laws. However, we find nuances in the concerns over insurance availability, and need for financial assistance and business knowledge