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Cattle Ranchers And Agritourism In Oregon, Usa: Motivations, Challenges And Opportunities From The Landowner's Perspective, Fernanda Pegas, Claudia Ollenburg, Joanne Tynon

Claudia Ollenburg

Cattle ranches are cultural icons in many countries. Still, high costs to maintain ranches may force some ranchers to sell their operation. One income alternative is to diversify into agritourism. Empirical research on ranch agritourism is scarce. This study provides an overview of, and assesses the motivations for, and challenges to diversifying into agritourism from the ranchers’ perspective. A survey of 400 Oregon ranchers in 2003 found that 21% of 177 respondents promoted agritourism and that it contributed 8% to their annual household income compared to an 84% contribution from livestock production. Working on the ranch and hunting / fishing …