Agritourism or Farm Tourism is fast becoming big business
Farm Tourism, also known as agritourism is an industry that is evolving from the need to add different revenue streams to a farm or primary producer and when it is done right, it can be big business.
Whether you produce or grow wine, dairy, fruit or vegetables, there is often the option to add the experience of visiting your property and allowing your customers to not only witness how you grow or produce your product but experience, learn and taste the product fresh from you.
Who wouldn’t want to explore a beautiful winery and see how your favourite blend is created from grape to bottle? Or maybe it’s the sweeter things in life like honey that takes your fancy. Agritourism is a growing industry for agriculture where the general public can catch a glimpse of the world that makes, grows, creates and produces many of the wonderful products produced and grown on farms.
There are many options for farm tourism and agritourism to be varied and scalable. In this course you will learn how to take opportunity and turn it into activity with potential to diversify and create new streams of income while building community and brand awareness.
Lesson Structure
There are 8 lessons in this course:
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The Scope and Nature of Rural and Agricultural Tourism
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Background and History of Farm Tourism
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Forms of Agribusiness for Managers and Farmers
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Agritourism Beyond the Farm
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Types of Agricultural Tourism
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Possible Issues
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Animal Welfare
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Creating an Agritourism Setting
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Planning Your Offering
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Resource Management
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Selecting Target Markets – Market Segmentation
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Marketing Approaches
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Legal and Health & Safety Requirement
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Managing an Agritourism Business
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Managing the Physical Resources
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Managing People
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Setting up and Running a Farm Shop
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Agricultural Tourism Accommodation
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Styles of Accommodation
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Costing Accommodation
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Maintenance
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Farm Tours and Activities
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Identifying Major Target Groups
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Tours Within the Farm
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Tour Schedules and Bookings
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Designing and Conducting Tours and Activities
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Creating and Delivering Activities
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Creating Activities Outside the Farm – Mobile & Online
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Agritourism Events
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Types of Agricultural Events
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Planning for an Agricultural Event
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Phases of Delivering an Agricultural Event
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Dealing with Event Issues
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Managing Visitor Access
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Marketing and Promoting an Agritourism Business
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Introduction to Customer Relationships
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Customer Care Policy
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Customer Care – Levels of Involvement
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Effective Communication
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Dealing with Complaints
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Self-Evaluation
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Maximising Customer Service
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Importance of Market Research
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Analysing Costs and Benefits
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Special Project - PBL – Design a Farm Tour Activity Problem-Based Learning Project
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
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Determine agritourism prospects for a property or wider community in a rural area.
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Identify and plan development of potential agritourism attractions.
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Explain critical tasks that require management in an agritourism enterprise.
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Compare options for providing accommodation facilities and services for agricultural tourism.
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Explain some of the considerations for designing and conducting various activities for agricultural tourism, including farm tours.
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Explore the diverse activities possible for agritourism and your region and globally.
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Identify the most appropriate agritourism marketing tools to effectively promote your business.
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Create and present a plan with specific strategies for integrating an element of farm tourism into the operation of an existing agricultural business.
What You Will Do
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Find and investigate marketing materials that promote agritourism.
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Observe behaviours of the animals in agritourism and consider the animal welfare.
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Identify potential hazards in agribusiness including how event organisers mitigate hazards.
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Perform a S.W.O.T. analysis to help identify the events Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in an agritourism business.
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Investigate the creation, sales or service of a food product related to an agribusiness, such as a café, food truck or road-side stall.
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Research how and where you might go to recruit staff for your business including seasonal workers such as backpackers or fruit pickers.
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Consider the physical and safety resources required to run an agribusiness.
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Identify utilities and furnishings that you both consider to be essential and non-essential.
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Identify of costs associated with the accommodation (budget, intermediate and luxury) and estimate amounts for each.
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Explore and experience virtual or mobile farm tour activities.
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Create a mind map for an agritourism event that you would like to run.
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Identify the apparent success of an agritourism attraction based on observations such as potential income and public interest.
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Research examples of advertising for agribusiness events in your area (billboards, signs, pamphlets, tv or radio advertisements, email etc) and conduct a cost benefit analysis, considering things like longevity, reach, target audience and monetary cost.
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Integrate theoretical information to derive sensible solutions to potential problems involved in integrating farm tourism.
CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITIES
A farm’s approach to agritourism is defined based on the level of income arising from its activities.
Whichever level of agritourism you want to incorporate into your farming business, you need to consider the range of attractions that might suit your purposes and fit neatly alongside your existing activities.
Some of the types of attractions that might suit a farm-based tourist attraction include:
- Wine or food tasting
- Demonstrations such as shearing, rodeo, mustering, and manufacturing (e.g., making wine, beer, cheese, blacksmithing)
- Talks, lectures, videos – educational agritourism can support both school-based activities and international agricultural tourism activities
- Displays- museums, animals
- Participation – pick your own fruit, cooking class, gardening class
- Guided tour of farm
- Entertainment (country music, drama/historic play)
- Scarecrow competitions/displays
- Tractor rides/hayrides
- Petting section or feeding goats/alpacas/pigs/chickens
- Picnic areas
- Trail rides/horse activities
- Farm shop (organic/local produce plus souvenirs)
- Scavenger hunts
- Maze activities
- Country markets/artisan products and services
- Farm stays/bed & breakfast/camping or glamping (yurts or unusual accommodation)
- Fishing – freshwater participation (catch your own), fish, shellfish farming plus aquaculture
- Paintballing/adventure tourism events
- Pilgrimage or retreat activities
- Ecotherapy/Horticultural therapy/Forest bathing
- Sponsor an animal
- Animal rehabilitation or rescue
AGRITOURISM BEYOND THE FARM
Agritourism attractions can be found or developed around any agriculture related activity. Apart from on farm experiences, it might also include attractions built around services that support farming or products derived from farms. For example:
- Factory – especially one that develops agricultural products, for example cheese or leather factories or a smokehouse (for smoking fish or meats).
- Railway
- Farm equipment supplies
- Purpose built attractions such theme parks
- Farm themed events, restaurants, shows, museums, historic village,
- Urban farm enterprise
Reasons to study this Course:
- Value Add to farm income – to create additional and/or alternative income
- Explore alternative, perhaps more sustainable tourist industry options
- Reduce risk when developing a new agritourism enterprise
- Operate agritourism enterprises more efficiently
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