Agritourism’s Booming Impact on Willamette Valley’s Economy

While there's no official definition of agritourism, researchers at Oregon State University looked at five activities: farm direct sales, education, entertainment, outdoor recreation, and hospitality. The total economic impact in nine Willamette Valley counties exceeds $985 million, with direct sales leading the way.

"You pick farm stands, things that, you know, come from selling direct to consumer," said Audrey Comerford, a regional OSU Extension agritourism coordinator and the study's co-author. She says they intentionally left wine growers out of the survey because so much has already been studied in that sector.

We also knew that their impact is very large, and so we wanted to make sure we were telling the whole story without skewed numbers. . .  Employment was impacted with these farms, you know, 11,000 jobs, 9,000 of them on farm.

Nearly a quarter of the Valley farms engage in non-wine agritourism. Comerford hopes the study will eventually lead to a statewide evaluation.