Imported from agrivisionai/claude-skills (s4ag-agritourism/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add agrivisionai/claude-skills --skill s4ag-agritourism. Copyright stays with the author.

Agritourism

Agritourism turns the farm itself into the product. Visitors pay for proximity to real food production, real landscapes, and real farming knowledge — things they cannot buy in a supermarket or experience online. Done well, agritourism adds a high-margin income stream that makes the core farm enterprise more financially resilient and deepens the relationship between the farm and the people who eat from it. The key is designing an offer that fits the farm as it actually is, not as a hospitality business grafted onto a farm.

How this skill works: Each sub-tool pauses at a Checkpoint to confirm the assumptions it is about to build on before producing output. A recommendation built on a wrong assumption wastes time and money — confirm the checkpoint before acting. Each sub-tool ends with Next steps — the skills worth running once you have acted on this one.

Expert Lineage

The thinkers whose frameworks underpin this skill — and what they specifically discovered that changes how you farm.

Pennsylvania State Extension — Agritourism Business Planning Penn State's agribusiness team established the canonical planning sequence for farm tourism enterprises in North America: define the core offer before spending on infrastructure, verify insurance and liability cover before opening, and price against the visitor experience rather than against input costs. Their most actionable finding: most agritourism failures result from underpricing (treating it as a marketing cost rather than a profit centre) and from inadequate compliance work before opening.

Oregon State University Extension — Farm Diversification OSU Extension research on small farm viability consistently finds that farms with three or more income streams are significantly more resilient to weather, market, and policy shocks than single-enterprise farms. Their key practical contribution: the best agritourism enterprises leverage what the farm already does rather than building a parallel hospitality operation. A sheep farm that runs sheepdog trials costs less to open than one that builds a café.

Farm Stay UK — Accommodation Standards and Guest Expectations Farm Stay UK's network data identifies the consistent drivers of guest satisfaction in farm accommodation: authenticity over luxury, interaction with working animals and crops, and farmer presence and accessibility. Their finding that challenges operators: guests who rate farms highly are those who experienced the farm as a farm — mud, smells, real animals, unpredictable weather — not those who experienced a sanitised rural hotel.

Joel Salatin — Transparency as a Marketing Strategy Salatin's model at Polyface Farm demonstrated that opening the farm to visitors — his "open farm" Saturdays and farm stays — simultaneously functions as marketing, community building, and income. His specific contribution: the cost of transparency is near zero if the farm is already doing what it should; the return is customer loyalty that supermarkets cannot compete with. Agritourism and regenerative practice are mutually reinforcing.

Elaine Ingham — Soil Health as Visitor Experience Content Ingham's soil food web framework, applied to agritourism, generates content that differentiates a farm from every rural hospitality operator in the country. A twenty-minute explanation of what lives in a teaspoon of healthy soil — and what a visitor's food purchase does for that biology — is a visitor experience unavailable anywhere else. The soil story is the story no hotel can tell.

Kim BRace & the Rural Tourism Research Network — Visitor Motivation Research on rural tourism motivation consistently identifies the same primary driver: visitors seek reconnection with food origins and agricultural practice they have lost contact with. The farm does not need to manufacture experiences — it needs to make what it already does legible and accessible. This finding reframes agritourism development: the question is not "what experience can we create?" but "what do we already do that visitors would pay to be part of?"

Which tool fits

Routing Decision

• Not sure what type of agritourism fits the farm → enterprise-design
• Have an idea but unsure about planning permission, insurance, or food safety → compliance
• Know the offer, unsure what to charge → pricing
• Ready to launch but unclear how to reach customers → marketing
• Running guests already but struggling with logistics or guest management → operations
• Unclear → enterprise-design first; it routes everything else

Enterprise Design

Defines the right agritourism offer for this farm, this farmer, and this market.

Most agritourism businesses fail not because the farm is wrong for tourism but because the enterprise chosen doesn't fit the farm's actual character, the farmer's actual capacity, or the market's actual demand. Enterprise design starts with what the farm is — not what the farmer imagines a rural tourism business should be.

Step 1: Farm audit — what do you have?

Answer these questions before designing anything:

Step 2: Enterprise type selection

Map farm assets to enterprise type:

Step 3: Viability filter

For any enterprise type under consideration, apply this filter before investing:

1. Demand test: Is there evidence of demand in your area? Search competitors on Airbnb, Eventbrite, and local tourism platforms. Demand exists if others are operating at occupancy. No competitors may mean no demand — or may mean an unmet opportunity.

2. Labour test: Can you absorb the hosting and operational labour in your current farming schedule, or does it require a hire? If a hire, factor the cost before calculating margin.

3. Margin test: Estimated annual revenue minus realistic operating cost. Compare to the return from the same time and capital invested in the core farm enterprise.

4. Character fit: Would you find this enjoyable enough to do consistently, or will it feel like an obligation within two seasons?

Step 4: Start small and prove before investing

The single biggest mistake in agritourism is building before validating. Start with the lowest-capital version of the enterprise:

• Farm tours before glamping
• One self-catering unit before three
• One u-pick weekend before a full-season operation
• One supper club before a commercial kitchen conversion

Soil health note: If the farm practises regenerative or ecological agriculture, this is the agritourism offer's most powerful differentiator. The story of what lives in the soil, why the food tastes different, and what the farming system is doing for the landscape is genuinely distinctive. Build this into every visitor experience, not just the ones explicitly about farming.

Checkpoint — confirm before finalising:

• What is the farmer's honest time capacity in each season — hours per week available for visitors, across all seasons?
• What is the farm's location relative to the primary visitor market — within two hours' drive of a city of over 200,000?
• Is there existing infrastructure (buildings, toilets, parking) or does the enterprise require capital investment before a single paying guest arrives?

Designing the enterprise without confirming time capacity and location produces a plan that is either physically undeliverable or commercially unviable before it opens.

Output:

AGRITOURISM ENTERPRISE DESIGN

FARM PROFILE
Location: [distance and drive time from nearest major population centre]
Agricultural character: [what the farm does / what's interesting]
Physical assets available: [buildings, land, features]
Farmer time available: [hours/week by season]

RECOMMENDED ENTERPRISE TYPE: [type]
Rationale: [2-3 sentences on why this fits]

ALTERNATIVE TO CONSIDER: [type, if applicable]

START SMALL — FIRST STEP
[The lowest-capital way to test this enterprise before committing]

REVENUE ESTIMATE (YEAR 1)
Units: [nights / visitors / events per year, realistic occupancy]
Price per unit: [£/$]
Gross revenue: [£/$]
Estimated operating cost: [£/$]
Net margin estimate: [£/$]

CAPITAL REQUIRED TO OPEN: [£/$ estimate]
Payback period estimate: [years]

SOIL STORY OPPORTUNITY
[How the farm's ecological practice becomes visitor experience content]

Next steps:

• Run compliance (within this skill) — planning permission and insurance must be confirmed before any investment or promotion.
• Run pricing (within this skill) — once the enterprise type is defined, get the pricing right before launching.
• /s4ag-finance — model the full farm income picture with agritourism added; confirm it improves the financial position.

Compliance

Identifies the planning, insurance, food safety, and operational compliance requirements before opening.

Compliance is the most commonly skipped step in agritourism development. The result is either enforcement action after investment, or an insurance gap discovered at the worst moment. Work through this before spending money on infrastructure or marketing.

Planning permission

Whether planning permission is required depends on jurisdiction and the nature of the change. The following general principles apply across most jurisdictions — verify with your local planning authority:

Action: Contact your local planning authority before starting work. A pre-application enquiry is usually free or low-cost and prevents the most expensive planning mistakes.

Insurance

Standard farm insurance almost never covers paying guests. You need:

Action: Contact a specialist rural and farm insurance broker — not a general insurer. Farm-specific insurers (NFU Mutual, Lycetts, Cornish Mutual, Rural Insurance) understand the dual farm-tourism exposure.

Food safety and hygiene

Action: Register with your local authority's environmental health team before serving food to paying guests. Environmental health officers are generally supportive of farm food enterprises — early engagement prevents problems.

Risk assessment and safe access

A working farm is not designed for the public. Before opening:

• Walk the visitor route and identify every hazard: machinery, animals, water, uneven ground, confined spaces, chemicals.
• Document the hazard, the risk, and the control measure in a written risk assessment.
• Brief any farm staff on visitor presence and protocols.
• Brief visitors on rules at arrival — what they can and cannot touch, where they can and cannot go.
• Ensure first aid provision (trained person on-site and accessible kit) during any visitor event.

Data protection

If you collect guest names, email addresses, or payment details, you are a data processor and must comply with GDPR (UK/EU) or equivalent. Register with the Information Commissioner's Office (UK) and have a privacy policy accessible to guests.

Checkpoint — confirm before finalising:

• What jurisdiction is the farm in — specifically which local planning authority and which food safety authority? Requirements vary significantly.
• Is accommodation being offered in an existing building or new-build / converted agricultural structure? This determines the planning route.
• Will food be prepared and served to paying guests? This triggers food hygiene registration.

Proceeding without confirming jurisdiction means the compliance output may not apply — planning rules especially vary significantly between authorities and nations.

Output:

COMPLIANCE CHECKLIST — [Farm Name]

PLANNING
Status: [permission required / not required / verify with LPA]
Action required: [pre-application enquiry / permitted development check / full application]
Estimated timeline: [weeks / months]
Estimated cost: [£/$]

INSURANCE
Cover required:
- [ ] Public liability — £[amount]
- [ ] Product liability — [if applicable]
- [ ] Farm accommodation cover — [if applicable]
- [ ] Event insurance — [if applicable]
Action: Contact [specialist farm insurer] before [date]

FOOD SAFETY
Registration required: [yes/no]
Action: Register with [local authority environmental health] by [date — 28 days before operating]
Food hygiene training: [required for / not required]

RISK ASSESSMENT
Written risk assessment: [required / in place]
Visitor briefing protocol: [established / to create]
First aid provision: [adequate / needs attention]

DATA PROTECTION
ICO registration: [in place / required]
Privacy policy: [in place / required]

PRIORITY ORDER
1. [first action — usually insurance]
2. [second action]
3. [third action]

Next steps:

• Run pricing (within this skill) — compliance costs affect the net margin calculation.
• Run marketing (within this skill) — only promote once compliance is confirmed.
• /s4ag-finance — factor compliance and insurance costs into the agritourism financial model.

Pricing

Sets prices for agritourism experiences and accommodation that reflect value and cover costs.

The most common agritourism pricing mistake is pricing against input costs rather than against perceived value and competitor benchmarks. A farm tour costs the farmer two hours of time and some insurance cost — that is irrelevant to what the visitor will pay. What matters is what they would pay for any other two-hour experience of equivalent quality in the same market.

Pricing methodology

1. Establish the market rate

Research comparable offers in your area and within two hours' drive:

• Airbnb: search farm stays and rural B&Bs within your county; filter by comparable spec.
• Booking.com: rural accommodation comparables.
• Eventbrite: farm events, foraging days, food workshops within your region.
• Visit [county/region] tourism board: published price benchmarking where available.
• Farm Stay UK (UK): accommodation rate data across the network.

Note the range, the average, and the top of market. Understand what the top performers are providing that justifies their premium.

2. Position within the market

3. Cost floor

Calculate the minimum price that covers all direct costs:

If market rate is below cost floor, the enterprise does not work at this scale or in this market.

4. Pricing by enterprise type

5. Dynamic pricing and seasons

• Set a peak rate (school holidays, harvest season, Christmas period) and an off-peak rate.
• Minimum nights at peak (typically 2–3 nights) improves revenue per booking and reduces turnaround labour.
• Mid-week discounts improve occupancy during otherwise empty nights without undermining weekend rates.

6. Value-add inclusions

Including items that cost you little but have high perceived value justifies a higher headline price:

• Breakfast from farm produce (eggs, preserves, bread)
• Welcome hamper with farm goods
• A self-guided farm walk with explanatory notes
• Firewood for a fire pit
• Lambing visit or harvest participation (seasonal)

Checkpoint — confirm before finalising:

• What is the actual market rate for comparable offers within two hours of this farm? Do not price in a vacuum.
• What are the real costs per visitor day or per night — specifically including labour at a realistic rate?
• Is there a reason to price below market in year 1 (no reviews, limited infrastructure) that means pricing should be reviewed after six months?

Pricing set without a market rate benchmark is guesswork. The output from this sub-tool is only as good as the competitor research that underpins it.

Output:

PRICING RECOMMENDATION — [Enterprise Type]

MARKET RESEARCH
Comparable range found: [£/$ low] to [£/$ high]
Market average: [£/$]
Top performer rate: [£/$] — [what justifies it]

COST FLOOR CALCULATION
Labour per unit: [£/$]
Insurance allocation: [£/$]
Consumables: [£/$]
Platform fees (if applicable): [£/$]
Other: [£/$]
Total cost floor: [£/$]

RECOMMENDED PRICING
Year 1 launch price: [£/$] — [rationale]
Target rate (once reviews established): [£/$]
Peak rate (school holidays / harvest): [£/$]
Off-peak rate: [£/$]
Minimum nights: [number]

VALUE-ADD INCLUSIONS
- [item 1 — cost to you / perceived value]
- [item 2]

ANNUAL REVENUE PROJECTION
[Number] bookings × [£/$] average = [£/$] gross revenue
Platform fees: [£/$]
Operating costs: [£/$]
Net margin: [£/$]

PRICING REVIEW DATE: [6 months from launch]

Next steps:

• Run marketing (within this skill) — the price must be supported by the way the offer is presented.
• /s4ag-finance — integrate agritourism revenue and margin into the whole-farm financial model.
• Run operations (within this skill) — pricing decisions affect what you can deliver; confirm operational capacity matches the promise.

Marketing

Reaches the agritourism customer through online presence, platforms, and partnerships.

Most agritourism customers make their decision based on three things: photographs, reviews, and story. The farm's marketing job is to deliver all three before the customer books. A farm with a genuine ecological story, beautiful photographs of real farm life, and a handful of enthusiastic reviews from early guests will outcompete a professionally marketed rural hotel on authenticity alone — in the segment of the market that is specifically seeking farm experience.

Step 1: Photography

Invest in photography before anything else. Poor photographs kill bookings; good photographs carry a weak listing. You need:

• Exterior in good light — approach, entrance, setting, landscape.
• Accommodation interiors — all rooms, bathroom, kitchen. Airy, uncluttered, natural light.
• Food — breakfast, farm produce, any meals offered. Close up, styled simply.
• Working farm — animals, crops, seasonal activity. Authenticity, not staging.
• People — optional but powerful where the farmer is comfortable being photographed; it personalises the farm.

A professional photographer for a half-day costs £300–£800 and generates imagery that will be used for years. It is the highest-return marketing investment available.

Step 2: Core listings

For accommodation:

• Airbnb — primary channel for most farm stays globally; 15–20% commission but dominant discovery.
• Booking.com — wider accommodation market; useful for reaching non-Airbnb users.
• Farm Stay UK (UK) — specialist network; credibility signal and discovery for the agritourism-seeking market.
• Visit [county] tourism board — free or low-cost listings; boosts local search visibility.

For experiences and events:

• Airbnb Experiences — discovery for tours, workshops, and activities worldwide.
• Eventbrite — for events with fixed dates and ticket sales.
• GetYourGuide — experience bookings, particularly strong for tourist-destination areas.
• Farmdrop / Farmison / local food directories — if food produce is part of the offer.

Step 3: Own website

A direct booking website reduces platform commission and allows full control of the story. Essential elements:

Step 4: Social media

Choose one platform and do it consistently rather than attempting all platforms with no consistency. For agritourism:

• Instagram — primary platform for farm visual content. Post farm life, seasonal activity, food, animals. Consistent cadence (3x/week minimum) builds following over 6–12 months. Stories and Reels extend reach.
• Facebook — still primary platform for over-45 demographic; useful for local community and events.
• TikTok — farm content performs extremely well; short-form video of real farming activity reaches audiences who are not yet looking for agritourism but will become interested.

Content strategy: the most effective agritourism social content shows the farm as it actually is — lambing at 3am, harvest in late summer, the first asparagus of spring, the soil after rain. Authenticity outperforms curation in this market.

Step 5: Reviews

Reviews are the purchase trigger for the majority of agritourism customers. Build your review base deliberately:

• Ask every guest to leave a review. Do this at checkout or in a follow-up message the day after their stay.
• Respond to every review — positive and negative. Response shows future guests that the farm takes hospitality seriously.
• Address any negative review factually and constructively. Do not argue.

Step 6: Partnerships

Checkpoint — confirm before finalising:

• Is the farm ready to receive visitors before any marketing goes live — compliance, insurance, and operations confirmed?
• Are photographs in place? Marketing without good photographs wastes every other investment.
• Which booking platform is most appropriate for this enterprise type and customer demographic?

Launching marketing before the operational infrastructure is ready is the fastest route to a negative review. Confirm readiness before promoting.

Output:

AGRITOURISM MARKETING PLAN — [Farm Name]

PHASE 1: BEFORE LAUNCH
- [ ] Professional photography booked — [date]
- [ ] Listings created on: [platforms]
- [ ] Direct website live at: [URL]
- [ ] Google Business Profile claimed and completed

LISTINGS
Primary platform: [platform] — listing live at [URL]
Secondary platform: [platform]
Specialist network: Farm Stay UK / [equivalent]

SOCIAL MEDIA
Primary platform: [platform]
Posting frequency: [x/week]
Content themes: [2-3 themes — e.g. seasonal farming, food, animal life]

STORY ANGLE
[2-3 sentences — the farm's authentic story in marketing language, including the soil/ecological angle]

REVIEW STRATEGY
Ask for review at: [checkout / follow-up message / both]
Review platforms to build: [Google / Airbnb / TripAdvisor]

PARTNERSHIP TARGETS
- [local business 1] — [what the referral relationship looks like]
- [local business 2]

YEAR 1 MARKETING BUDGET
Photography: [£/$]
Website: [£/$]
Paid promotion (if any): [£/$]
Network memberships: [£/$]
Total: [£/$]

Next steps:

• Run operations (within this skill) — marketing generates bookings; operations determines whether the experience lives up to the promise.
• /s4ag-direct-marketing — if farm produce is being sold alongside the agritourism offer, align the two marketing approaches.
• /s4ag-community — agritourism guests who love the farm become the foundation of a CSA or direct marketing customer base.

Operations

Manages guests on a working farm practically — without compromising farm safety or farmer sanity.

A working farm is not a hotel. It has machinery, animals, chemicals, uneven ground, unpredictable weather, and a farmer whose primary job is farming. Good agritourism operations manage the boundary between the guest experience and the working farm — clearly, consistently, and without making guests feel unwelcome.

Step 1: Define the boundary

Before the first guest arrives, define physically and procedurally:

• Where guests go: Marked routes, accessible areas, anything requiring advance agreement.
• Where guests do not go: Machine stores, chemical stores, private livestock areas, staff workspaces.
• When guests may interact with livestock or operations: Scheduled or by arrangement, not ad hoc.

Signage is cheaper than an incident. Clear, friendly signs in the right places prevent most access problems.

Step 2: Arrival and orientation

Every guest needs a briefing at arrival. Keep it brief and warm — not a liability lecture:

• Welcome; show them to accommodation or meeting point.
• Cover the rules in 2 minutes: where they can go, what they need to know about animals (if relevant), emergency procedures, parking, and access.
• Point out the farm walk, self-guided content, or scheduled activities.
• Give them a contact number for questions.

A written welcome card or folder in the accommodation covers what the verbal briefing misses and reduces repeat questions.

Step 3: Seasonal calendar for agritourism

Match the agritourism offer to the farm calendar. Visitors want to see the farm working — not an empty field in February:

If accommodation is available year-round, market different seasonal experiences rather than a single static description.

Step 4: Managing guest-livestock interaction

This is the highest-risk element of most farm agritourism operations. Guidelines:

• All livestock interaction should be structured and supervised, not self-directed.
• Feeding animals is a highlight for guests; establish a fixed, safe protocol for it.
• Never allow unsupervised access to paddocks with bulls, stallions, boars, or any animal with a history of aggression.
• Hand sanitiser available at every livestock interaction point — this is food safety as well as hygiene.
• Establish a policy on children and livestock before a guest brings one.

Step 5: Turnaround and housekeeping

For accommodation, define:

• Standard cleaning checklist per changeover — do not rely on memory.
• Who does the turnaround — farmer, hired cleaner, or combination?
• Minimum time between checkout and check-in — typically 4–6 hours for thorough turnaround.
• Linen arrangements — own or laundry service?
• Consumable restock checklist — welcome provisions, toiletries, firewood, coffee, local produce.

Step 6: Managing difficult situations

Have a protocol in place before encountering:

Step 7: Record keeping

Keep records of:

• All bookings: dates, guest names, contact details, amount paid.
• All incidents: what happened, who was involved, what was done.
• All food hygiene checks if serving food.
• All maintenance of guest accommodation (for insurance and property records).

Checkpoint — confirm before finalising:

• Is there a clear physical boundary established between guest access areas and working farm areas — either by signage, fencing, or protocol?
• Who is responsible for guest management and turnaround on days when farming demands are highest?
• Is there a written emergency procedure — who to call, where the first aid kit is, how to reach the farmer — available to guests?

Operating without a clear access boundary creates liability exposure. Operating without a turnaround plan means the first busy weekend breaks the system.

Output:

AGRITOURISM OPERATIONS FRAMEWORK — [Farm Name]

GUEST ACCESS
Open access areas: [list]
Restricted areas: [list — and how marked]
Supervised access: [livestock / machinery / any special areas]

ARRIVAL PROTOCOL
Arrival time window: [time]
Orientation checklist:
- [ ] Welcome and accommodation orientation
- [ ] Farm rules briefing
- [ ] Emergency contact and procedure
- [ ] Farm walk / self-guided content shown

SEASONAL EXPERIENCE CALENDAR
Spring: [key activity]
Summer: [key activity]
Autumn: [key activity]
Winter: [key activity / quieter period management]

LIVESTOCK INTERACTION PROTOCOL
Structured opportunities: [list and timing]
Prohibited unsupervised access: [specific animals / areas]
Hygiene requirements: [hand sanitiser points, protocol]

TURNAROUND CHECKLIST
Checkout time: [time]
Check-in time: [time]
Cleaning responsibility: [farmer / cleaner / combination]
Consumable restock: [list of items checked per turnaround]

INCIDENT PROTOCOL
Injury: [call 999 / ambulance — then call insurer: [number] same day]
Complaint: [listen, acknowledge, remedy, document]
Damage: [photograph, document, claim process]

RECORDS KEPT
- Booking register: [location]
- Incident log: [location]
- Food hygiene record (if applicable): [location]
- Maintenance log: [location]

Next steps:

• Run pricing (within this skill) — if operations reveal that the labour cost per guest is higher than priced, adjust immediately.
• /s4ag-labour — if the agritourism operation grows beyond what the farmer alone can manage, plan the labour structure before it becomes a crisis.
• /s4ag-education — if guests are consistently asking for more depth on the farm's practices, the next step is a structured farm education programme.