It’s all in my head: informal visitor knowledge and capacity constraints on Vermont agritourism farms

Agritourism, opening farms to visitors, can contribute to food systems sustainability goals, including economic prosperity and livelihoods, social engagement, environmental quality, and human health. Agritourism is particularly important in states like Vermont where direct-to-consumer sales and community engagement are part of the rural fabric. While much scholarship has focused on farmer motivation and economic outcomes, less research has examined how operators come to know their visitors and what limits their use of marketing information. We report on year one of a multi-year project on how Vermont agritourism operators understand their visitors, what visitors’ information they currently collect or want, and what capacity constraints affect their ability to use it. We conducted semi-structured interviews with operators of 10 farms (December 2025-January 2026) and analyzed them thematically. Findings indicate that all 10 operators relied on informal, memory-based visitor knowledge, and nine had no formal system for collecting or analyzing visitor data. All 10 named word of mouth as a visitor discovery channel; nine used social media, at widely varying levels of activity. Operators most wanted to know what activities visitors are interested in and how visitors find the farm, and all farmers wanted to use visitor data for planning. Several farmers cited time constraints, a lack of dedicated staff, and a marketing skills gap as barriers, suggesting the issue is primarily capacity rather than interest in data. This study contributes an operator-side account of the visitor-information gap in agritourism. It shows that the capacity to convert experiential visitor knowledge into systematic, actionable information, rather than a lack of interest in data, is the primary constraint on Vermont agritourism operators’ marketing decisions. These findings will also inform the customized on-farm visitor surveys planned for the next phase of the research.