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COVID might provide agritourism with a bounce

A Colorado State University economist says COVID-19 might not have a large, negative impact on agritourism.

Stephan Weiler tells Brownfield more people have been taking road trips for vacation during the pandemic.

“People are talking about taking road trips as opposed to flying and agritourism is largely car-based,” he said.

And he said those road trips have been focused on nature.

“People have basically been, you know, abandoning traveling to cities, traveling to amusement parks and instead [are] going to the great outdoors,” he said. “And, in that case, it actually might be able to benefit some rural communities that depend more on recreation.”

Weiler said activities that have a low COVID risk, like being in the outdoors, have seen a “relative boom” because of the virus.