<![CDATA[Destination marketing communication in agritourism is generally analysed through paid channels and social media, while direct interaction between farmers and visitors is rarely treated as a communication channel in its own right. This study aims to explain how the warmth of farmer-visitor interaction triggers word-of-mouth communication and how it relates to revisit intention in Indonesian agritourism. A qualitative approach using Straussian Grounded Theory procedures was applied. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with twenty-four informants across five agritourism destinations, namely Agro Rakyat, Hortimart Agro Center, Jatiluwih, Arjuna Farm, and Agrowisata Sodong as a contrasting comparison, complemented by observation and document tracing, then analysed using NVivo 14 through open and axial coding. Findings show that warmth and emotional closeness in interaction appeared in 23 of 24 data sources. What visitors found memorable was not standardised friendliness but farmers' willingness to share the difficulties of their work and the feeling of being received as a guest. The observed pathway consistently follows the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework, with the encounter as stimulus, satisfaction and emotional attachment as internal state, and revisit intention, recommendation, and social media storytelling as response. The study concludes that encounter quality constitutes a communication investment, and proposes sincerity as a candidate service quality dimension requiring further testing.]]>
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