The Agritourism Premium: Culinary Trails as an Experiential Marketing Strategy for State-Branded Farm, Fish, and Fiber Products

Materials and methods:

Research design. The project will conduct a series of field experiments that generate quantitative and qualitative data to address the following objectives:

1. To determine whether agritourism drives direct sales of state-branded farm products.
2. To determine whether agritourism shapes values associated with emotional consumer loyalty.
3. To determine whether emotional consumer loyalty has a latent impact on purchase behavior.
4. To determine whether culinary trails are an effective form of industry
5. To determine whether culinary trails are an effective form of destination

These experiments will be conducted from January 1, 2024 to October 30, 2026. Since the project involves human subjects research, approval from the University of Maine’s Institutional Review Board will be sought in three phases: 1) online research panel of 900 U.S. consumers; 2) in-person surveys of 400 consumers participating in a treatment – festival or on-farm agritourism experience; and 3) interviews with producers and industry professionals associated with trail planning and implementation.

Survey topics: Components of the consumer survey will include the following:

• Type of treatment in which the respondent participated: festival or agritourism activity, such as a tour, course, demonstration, outdoor recreation, and/or sampling (Objective 1).
• Willingness to pay for a local or state-branded product using a binary choice experiment (Objective 1).
• Consumer loyalty behavior toward local food using a validated scale (Bagozzi et al, 2017), including repeat purchase intention and/or behavior (Objectives 2, 3, 4, 5).
• Values, beliefs, and attitudes toward local food using a validated scale to measure locavorism (Reich et al, 2018).
• Demographics, including gender, age, race and ethnicity, household income, educational attainment, work status, and zip code.
• Perceived benefits of culinary trails at the establishment and industry level (Objectives 4, 5).
• Strategies for cooperation, communication, coordination, and collaboration at the industry and region level (Objectives 4, 5).

Participants: For the consumer survey, the target population for the survey is adults, age 18 and over, who live in the United States. Due to the context in which the survey is administered, approximately half of respondents will either be residents and/or tourists in New England. For the industry survey, the target population is producers who host agritourism opportunities on a culinary trail.

Data collection

Consumers. A 39-question, 5-part consumer survey will be implemented in three different formats (See Figure 2):

Study #1: This study will be conducted online via the research platform Prolific. In order to join the panel, participants are pre-screened by Prolific regarding their demographics, lifestyle, and research interests before they are eligible to participate in a survey.

• Control group: Panel of 450 consumers on Prolific representative of the U.S. population.
• Treatment group: Panel of 450 consumers on Prolific representative of the U.S. population. Unlike the control group, the treatment group will receive an information condition that includes a one-page description of the local food producer featured within the binary choice experiment.

Study #2: This study will be conducted as an intercept survey during two events: 1) the Maine Cheese Festival on September 13, 2026 in Pittsfield, Maine; and 2) Open Creamery Day on October 11, 2026 held at 8-10 farms throughout Southern, Midcoast, and Central Maine.

• Control group: The control groups will consist of 200 visitors randomly approached on their entry to the event.
• Treatment groups: The treatment group will consist of 200 visitors randomly approached on their exit from the event.

Study #3: Participants in Study #2 will be surveyed again 2-3 months following their participation in the event. This follow-up survey constitutes a within-subjects design where the responses from subjects will be compared with their prior responses to measure statistically significant differences in attitudes, norms, and behaviors around local cheese.

Both the control and treatment groups will participate in a binary choice experiment where they will make a choice on their willingness to purchase a local or state-branded product. Information about the product will include the price, price per pound, ingredients, place of origin, and the product label, which contributes to perceived quality.

Industry. In addition to consumers, 8-10 producers and industry professionals will be interviewed to explore 1) how individual farmers perceive and describe the benefits and challenges of agritourism to their industries and regions; and 2) how farmers describe how their members work together as an industry cluster to promote agritourism, for example, through strategies like capacity, cooperation, communication, coordination and collaboration. This dataset will be used to determine how effectively producers work together to plan, implement, and promote culinary trails (Porter, 1998; Ruiz-Labrador et al, 2023; Wulandari et al, 2024).

Research was scaled down from three sectors - cheese, fiber, and oysters – to one sector: cheese. First, cheese is a staple of the American diet, with $32 billion in U.S. demand. Second, Maine’s cheese industry has a 20+ year history of agritourism, offering an annual cheese festival as well as an Open Creamery Day with a choose-your-own adventure format marketed to consumers online. Third, cheese represents an emerging industry that Maine is not particularly known for. For example, Maine has a monopoly on the nation’s supply of lobster. Besides lobster being a non-SARE eligible product, it is considered a luxury good that consumers do not purchase frequently. Moreover, there are no comparable products on the market for comparison purposes. While potatoes are also one of Maine’s signature products, the industry has not developed any agritourism opportunities, only a summer festival that does not include tours of either factories or farms. While the state is home to 87 licensed cheese makers, Maine ranks just 41^st in the country in cheese production. Virtually all are artisanal producers. Maine cheese retails for an average of $14.63 per pound, more than three times the U.S. average of $4-$5 per pound (Atlantic Corporation, 2022; IBISWorld, 2025). Thus, a great deal of consumer education, such as that offered by agritourism, is necessary to cultivate local, state, regional, and national markets for Maine-made cheese. Fourth, cheese represents a moderately priced product that consumers might be willing to order online after their visit, facilitating repeat purchase behavior.

Materials:

Quantitative Fieldwork. All survey responses will be entered by participants themselves on the Qualtrics platform. All subjects must be at least 18 years old to participants. Subjects will be recruited through two methods:

Study #1: Subjects for Study #1 will be recruited online through the www.prolific.com platform. Such platforms make online participant recruitment reliable and efficient, giving researchers immediate access to millions of diverse, high-quality respondents. To register for Prolific, respondents must be at least 18 years of age.

Study #2: Subjects for Study #2 will be recruited as part of a consumer survey conducted during two events. Researchers conducting the recruitment will wear an approved University of Maine t-shirt, sweatshirt, jacket, or name tag to easily identify them as students.

• Maine Cheese Festival on Sunday, September 13, 2026: The survey team will host a table with a pop-up tent labeled as a research station. Visitors will be randomly intercepted on either their entry or exit to the event, with survey input via iPad. In addition, respondents will be able to complete the survey via their own mobile device by scanning a QR code distributed via postcard. Since the event occurs on one day only from 11AM to 5PM, a team of six researchers will be necessary to intercept 30-35 visitors per hour.
• Open Creamery Day on Sunday, October 11, 2026: Since this event occurs on one day only at 8-10 farms throughout the state, students will be assigned to cover 1-2 farms in relative proximity to each other. Visitors will be randomly intercepted on either their entry or exit to the event, with survey input via iPad. Through this method, 10 researchers will interview 4-5 visitors per hour over 4-6 hours, for a total of 200-250 visitors.

Study #3: Participants in Study #2 who voluntarily provide their email will be sent a follow-up survey 2-3 months after the event to determine whether there is a statistically significant difference in their attitudes, norms, and behaviors around local cheese post-experience.

Qualitative Fieldwork. Participants who are cheese producers in Maine and who participate in agritourism will be invited to participate in the research study, with a target of 8-10 participants. All subjects must be at least 18 years old to participate. Participants will be recruited through two methods: direct recruitment through email by the graduate student based on personal and professional networks; and the gatekeeper approach whereby the executive director of the Maine Cheese Guild invites members to participate in the research study through an email. Of 87 licensed cheesemakers, 36 are engaged in commercial production, 24 in on-farm and/or off-farm agritourism, and 5, only in off-farm agritourism, e.g., festivals and farmers markets.

Each interview will take approximately 45-60 minutes and will be conducted either in person at the participant’s place of business or by Zoom, according to the participant’s preferences. Interviews will be audio-recorded using a portable device or through the Zoom platform and will be transcribed by the principal investigator. An audio-recording will ensure an accurate transcript for the purpose of data analysis. Interviews will follow a semi-structured interview protocol with 15 scripted questions.

Power analysis. A power analysis for each quantitative study was conducted using G*Power (Faul et al., 2009).

Study #1: A power analysis for a one-tailed test comparing two independent proportions (odds ratio ≈ 1.86, α = 0.05, power = 0.95) indicates that a minimum of 466 observations (233 per group) is required. With a planned sample size of 900 participants (approximately 450 per group), the study exceeds this requirement, ensuring high statistical power. This power is held in reserve for the possibility that more than one type of cheese, e.g., cheddar and mozzarella, is included in the experiment.

Study #2: Differences in the proportion choosing the local or state-branded cheese across four groups will be tested using a χ² test of independence (2×4 contingency table; df = 3). A G*Power analysis (χ² goodness-of-fit for contingency tables; Cohen’s w = 0.30 [medium], α = 0.05, df = 3) indicates a minimum total N of 191 to achieve 95% power. With a planned N = 400 (100 per group), the study exceeds this requirement, yielding high statistical power. This power is held in reserve for the possibility that more than one type of cheese, e.g., cheddar and mozzarella, is included in the experiment.

Study #3 will use Bayesian logistic regression to assess changes in the likelihood of respondents choosing a local or state-branded cheese from pre-event to post-event. Inference will focus on odds ratios, 95% credible intervals, and the posterior probability that the odds ratio exceeds a meaningful threshold (e.g., OR > 1.5). This approach emphasizes effect size and uncertainty rather than binary significance testing, which is appropriate given the limited sample size of the follow-up survey.

Analytics strategies. This study will deploy four analytical strategies:

• Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize the demographics of respondents.
• Logistic regression will be used to estimate the likelihood that consumers will choose a local or state-branded cheese.
• Hierarchical Linear Modeling will be used to model within-group and between-group effects in order to determine whether context (festival versus farm) significantly influences the likelihood of consumers choosing a local or state-branded cheese.
• Bayesian logistic regression will be used to assess changes in the likelihood of respondents choosing a local or state-branded cheese from pre-event to post-event.
• Qualitative analysis using the principles of Grounded Theory (Corbin & Strauss, 2015) will be used to analyze interviews with producers and industry.

In 2024-2025, the graduate student participated in four courses that directly advanced the project’s deliverables:

• Economics 503 (Experimental Economics) at the University of Maine
• Public Policy & Management 703 (Doctoral Economics) at the University of Southern Maine
• Education & Human Development (EHD) 571 and 572 (Qualitative Research Methods) at the University of Maine
• Education & Human Development 590 (Hierarchical Linear Modeling) at the University of Maine

These courses resulted in the following products: 1) comprehensive literature review of studies associated with willingness to pay for cheese as well as cheese tourism; 2) IRB for qualitative fieldwork approved on February 19, 2025; 3) beta testing of the interview protocol with three industry professionals; 4) development of a final code list and conceptual framework to guide interpretation of qualitative research; and 5) three iterations of a draft IRB for quantitative fieldwork, which is still under review.

Survey instruments were reviewed by ten professors affiliated with the University of Maine, University of Southern Maine, and the University of New England in the fields of Economics, Food Science, Business, Education and Human Development, and Tourism & Hospitality, including the PIs for the USDA SARE grant; members of the student's PhD dissertation committee; and professors associated with the courses.

Substantive feedback included the following:

Research design

1. Scaling back the research project from three industry sectors to one
2. Incorporating random assignment into the implementation of the intercept survey

Survey design

3. Incorporating an information condition into the online experiment
4. Drafting an information condition around a hypothetical cheese brand
5. Using different types of cheese from the same farm in order to employ a consistent information condition that does not vary across subgroups
6. Reducing the number of choices in the discrete choice experiment from four to two
7. Randomizing the order of attributes in the choice experiment
8. Offering the local choice at different price points
9. Changing the focus from willingness to pay to intention or likelihood to purchase

The recommendations that were adopted include 1, 2, 3, 5, and 9, with recommendations 6, 7, and 8 rendered moot by the adoption of 9. These changes required a fundamental restructuring of both the research design and the budget. In order to include random assignment in the research design, the budget now includes funding for a team of research assistants who will be trained to conduct intercept surveys in person at both Maine Cheese Festival and Open Creamery Day. Because this budget approval was not received until September 15, 2025, the intercept survey component of this research will now occur in the summer and fall of 2026.

In order to prepare for fieldwork, the graduate student participated in a series of self-funded professional development activities:

• Participation in the 2025 Maine Cheese Festival and 2025 Open Creamery Day.
• Murray's Cheese Bootcamp in New York City, a two-day course on the taxonomy of cheese with the context of the global cheese trade.
• Basics of Cheese Making, a foundational two-day course in Maine that serves as the Maine Cheese Guild’s entry point into home or commercial production.
• Pasture to Plate, a four-day course at the Center for Dairy Research in Wisconsin featuring an immersive week of lectures, demonstrations, tastings, labs, and site visits to dairy farms and production plants.

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