Educational agritourism: educational farms on the rise

Accommodation, food and wine tasting and catering remain thecore business of Italian agritourism companies, but in the additional services, including horse riding and mountain biking, educational farms are making room for themselves: in 2024 their number grew by 12.2% to 2,340, accounting for 8.9% of the total number of facilities and 17.6% of the companies offering at least one of the so-called complementary services (a total of nine). A further sign of the vitality of a sector that has been growing steadily for twenty years, to which Istat dedicates its annual survey 'Agritourism companies in Italia': in the 2024 census, the number of structures reached 26,360, an increase of 231 units compared to the previous year (+0.9%). Their economic value (at current prices) is just over 1,934 million euros: + 3.3% compared to 2023. This is a slight slowdown considering that over the last 10 years the value has grown at an average annual rate of 5.3%.

The offer is spread throughout the territory: there are 5,030 municipalities with at least one agritourism, or 63.7 per cent of the total number of Italian municipalities, and they cover an area of more than 240 thousand square kilometres, or 79.5 per cent of the national territory. There are also the 'super agritourism' municipalities with 100 or more facilities. They are 10: Appiano sulla strada del vino / Eppan an der Weinstraße (Bolzano), Caldaro sulla strada del vino / Kaltern an der Weinstraße (Bolzano), Castelrotto / Kastelruth (Bolzano), Cortona (Arezzo), Grosseto (Grosseto), Manciano (Grosseto), Montalcino (Siena), Montepulciano (Siena), San Gimignano (Siena) and Noto (Siracusa). Altogether, these municipalities, occupying only 0.85% of the national surface area, host 1,418 agritourism farms.

In territorial detail, the North is confirmed as the area with the highest number of agritourism facilities (11,504 farms, 43.5%). Tuscany remains in first place in the regional ranking (22.2% of agritourism businesses nationwide), followed by the Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen (13%): more than a third of the total number of facilities in the country is concentrated in these two territories. On the other hand, the South of Italy proves to be more dynamic: compared to 2023 it grew by 2.5%, while in the North and Centre it grew by 0.5%. Within the Mezzogiorno, the two largest islands grew significantly (+6.1%), especially Sicily (+8.9%), while Sardinia grew by 2.6%.

As for the combination of services, compared to 2023, the greatest growth concerns the combination of accommodation-tasting (+4.3% of farms offering these services), followed by the combination of tasting and catering (+2%) and accommodation-restaurant (+1.4%). But in the articulation of the agritourism offer, the importance of complementary services is also confirmed: in 2024, 13,265 farms (50.3% of the total) offered at least one additional service among horse riding, excursions, nature observation, trekking, mountain biking, educational farms, various courses, sporting activities, various activities. As mentioned, educational farms show the most marked growth (+12.2% compared to 2023), followed by horse riding (+9%), nature observation (+8.9%), trekking (+8%), mountain biking (+7%) and hiking (5.2%).

Agritourism companies, Istat notes, seem to be 'progressively adapting to the needs of agritourists, enhancing local specificities and strengthening the role of agritourism not only as a place to stay and eat, but also as a space for experiences and recreational activities'.