The Millennial pursuit of experiential travel and the difficult economics of farming have made way for a boom to agritourism, or the trend of small to medium farms turning to farm-stays as another form of income.
While agritourism isn’t exactly new—it has helped sustain farmers since the early 20th century—the use of tools such as Airbnb experiences has launched agritourism to a new level. From February 2018 to February 2019, an Airbnb spokesperson said 943,534 guests had stayed at a farm found on Airbnb.
I personally have benefited from the rise of agritourism. I’ve WWOOF’d on a farm in Tuscany, pruning vines and picking vegetables. And I’ve used Airbnb experiences to visit vineyards in Basque Country, learning about a local varietal, Txakoli. Meanwhile, in class, we’ve seen how tourism has been an effective strategy for family run businesses, such as Courtney Kingston’s winery.
While I think the rise of agritourism has had a largely positive impact on the food and wine world, giving people a better appreciation for where products come from and how much goes into production, I do think agritourism is double-edged.
Farm work is incredibly difficult and there is a wide gap between the perception on social media versus the reality. In an article in Vox, How are small farms surviving? Airbnb, one farm owner explained, “People are looking for the beauty of the farm but not the ugly of the farm.”
At the same time, the ubiquity of airbnbs has changed the nature of small-town wine country and other rural areas. Upon visiting friends in Sonoma recently, they commented for instance that what used to be a quiet town of locals has now been overtaken by limos of bachelorette parties. In many ways, this is not different from the way that Airbnb has changed the nature of housing in urban centers. However, these trends in light of the rise of agritourism raise the question of how do we thoughtfully engage and visits with centers of agriculture in a way that promotes learning and not just extracting idealistic instagrams.
Mary, as someone who straddled the line between tourist and local in both Sonoma and Napa, I agree that agritourism is a double-edged sword. Agritourism – including both culinary and wine tourism – has undoubtedly been a boon to California wine country. Much of the population in these towns works in the hospitality space, and a thriving economy continues to keep employment levels high. The entrance of Airbnb to the region also helped drive tourism by democratizing wine country visits (hotel prices in the area are notoriously high) and volume of winery and restaurant transactions. Despite the obvious financial benefit, though, Napa imposes stringent restrictions on short-term rentals such as Airbnb and VRBO – issuing only 41 permits for properties rented less than 31 days. To some, that might seem stifling, and antagonistic to the goal of a thriving local economy. But from the perspective of locals, the housing crisis is both very real and present in wine country. Though wages have stayed relatively flat in recent years, property values have soared; due in part to rental value. Long-term residents of Napa and Sonoma are faced with difficult choices of buying and renting, with many unable to afford to live in the town they have long called home. The issue is thorny, with strong feelings and logical arguments on both sides; it will be interesting to see how wine country navigates the complexities of both the housing crisis and a burgeoning tourism industry.
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