VFN has been working to support the growth of this sector since 2010 with the development of the DigInVT.com platform with partners. We co-chair the Farm to Plate agritourism community of practice.

 In 2023, we successfuly completed a four year USDA grant centered around strengthening Vermont agritourism industry in partnership with farms and agritourism stakeholders across Vermont.

Activities funded over the course of this federal grant  centered around providing information and opportunity for supporting entry into the agritourism sector, as well as  providing growth opportunities for current farms who utlize agritourism as a financial stream. In partnership with UVM Extension and other local partners we produced the following.

• Vermont Open Farm Week 2020 - 2024 *
• Agritourism Regulation Navigation tool
• Agritourism Self assessment Booklet
• Marketing support and materials for farms.
• Regional networking events

The success of our work in agritourism speaks to the strength of DigInVT.com as a collaborative tool for partners, and to the success of our efforts to increase the reach of our members by investing in our agritourism work.

Vermont agritourism income 2017 - 2022*

• The number of farms reporting agritourism sales increased by 137 – from 186 to 323.
• Agritourism sales increased by $2.96 million, from $1.70 to $4.67 million in total.
• An increase in average sales per farm, from approx. $9.2k to $14.5k per farm.

*According to the USDA census