Key take outs from the Australian Agritourism Convention

Agriculture and tourism are Australia’s third and sixth largest export industries. Together, they provide a unique opportunity for growth – and there is also an opportunity for Indigenous tourism to connect with agritourism.

Agritourism is a growing sector, expected to be worth $18.6b to the economy by 2030.

Australian Regional Tourism has just hosted a national agritourism conference.

National Agritourism Strategy Framework

Australian Regional Tourism launched a National Agritourism Strategy Framework and Action Plan at the conference, as well as a toolkit for farmers looking to diversify into agritourism, and a toolkit to help Councils support agritourism development.

This has been a long time coming and this will be a game changer for regional and rural tourism! Agritourism is an ecosystem, and ART are taking a holistic approach to agritourism development.

Many farmers do not even realise they are on an agritourism journey until they reach an advanced stage in the years-long process because farmers are doers and when you give them a project they just get on and do it.

Five key enablers of growth for agritourism towards 2030

1. Resourcing - financial and human resources

2. Stakeholder alignment behind the key goals and purpose of the plan

3. Aligned policy and regulatory environment - one of the key critical enablers to success! Red tape needs to be cut (NSW is leading in this space)

4. Access to quality insights from research

5. A focus on sustainability

Priorities

The Strategy Framework has identified six priorities

1. Support sustainable and inclusive farm diversification

2. Support community capacity building with a focus on regional employment

3. Develop high quality, distinctly Australian agritourism experiences

4. Promote the sector responsibly, with an alignment to food and drink

5. Encourage genuine collaboration and enduring partnerships

6. Provide sector leadership to support inclusive growth

There are great partnerships to make this project possible – the National Farmers Federation, Tourism Australia, the state tourism organisations, and Airbnb.

Agricultural Innovation

The context for future proofing ag through agritourism and diversification

Barry McGookin, GM Innovation (Food Innovation Australia Ltd)

Agritourism needs an ecosystem that encourages stakeholders to work collectively if it is to succeed

Challenges for agritourism innovation include

• Regulations

• Ageing agricultural workforce

• Our society doesn’t celebrate failures, and innovation involves failures

• It takes time to demonstrate that innovations are realistic

The first thing a farmer should do is to articulate their why - Why do they want to offer agritourism?

What is your REAL why for doing this….really think about this…everything flows from your why and your reason for doing something.

If you’re only doing it for the money, then you will not succeed…money is an outcome not a purpose.

Out of 187,000 businesses, 70% are sole traders. Connections have value - discover the power of ‘more than one’. Interactions and connections make a difference and will help your business and will support innovation. Find mentors and friends to talk to.

When you give someone information and help for free, and you do that four times in a row (without expecting to get something back), the fifth time they will come to you and then you can start to talk about collaboration and ideas – this is a way for farmers to start to collaborate with each other.

Agritourism Leadership

A rising tide lifts all boats

Caroline Miillar - Balkello Farm, Scottish Agritourism

Caroline is from a traditional farm run by three generations of her family, farming beef, lamb, malting barley, wheat, and oats. They diversified into tourism to supplement their farming income, and are now attracting 2,500 high yield guests to their accommodation each year

98% of Scotland is rural, 2% is urban, but most people live in the urban areas. Scottish agritourism invested in consumer facing website to promote

• selling farm food and drink direct to consumers

• days out and experiences, such as meals in a farm cafe, events, and farm tours

• short breaks and holidays (accommodation)

The core of Scottish agritourism is real farmers, real farms, rearing livestock, and growing crops - no fakes! Their ‘Go rural’ brand guarantees that.

Investment by the public sector into knowledge exchange via the Scottish Enterprise Agritourism Monitor Farm Programme has really helped support the growth and development of agritourism in Scotland. Agritourism makes farming businesses more sustainable in Scotland.

The sharing of knowledge amongst farmers enables them to grow their existing agritourism business and develop new experiences.

Another thing that really helped Scotland was defining what agritourism is: tourism or leisure on a working farm, croft or estate which produces food.

Scottish Agritourism is a membership body which commenced operation in 2020…a great model for Australian agritourism development. There’s an opportunity for the two countries to work together to grow agritourism.

Scotland has a new Agritourism Growth Strategy.

Agritourism Planning Reforms

Laying the foundations for future experience development

Luke Walton, Executive Director, Housing and Economic Policy, NSW Department of Planning and Environment

There’s positive movement taking place in NSW - perhaps it’s not perfect, but it is a step forward in the right direction. Let’s hope other jurisdictions follow and reduce red tape for farmers looking to diversify into tourism.

Their Agritourism and small-scale agriculture development report provides an explanation of the intended effect.

Reforms will start on 1 December, 2022

1. New land use terms and definitions introduced:

• Agritourism

• Farm gate premises

• Farm experience premises

• Farm stay accommodation (now includes caravan & camping)

2. Agritourism must be associated with a commercial farm

3. Tailored approval pathways (approvals depend on the scale and type of development - low impact development, small scale building work, larger developments)

The next step in reforms will be working with Councils to permit agritourism in more places.

There are also resources and a toolkit available online

Case studies

Some best-practice agritourism businesses in regional Australia mentioned during the conference include the following.

• The Truffle Farm, ACT

• Green Olive at Red Hill, Mornington Peninsula, VIC

• The House of Honey, Swan Valley, WA

• Yarra Valley Dairy, Yarra Valley, VIC

• Macadamias Australia, Bundaberg QLD

Next steps

Join our free Australian Agritourism Development Facebook group

Over to you

What were your key takeaways from the agritourism convention?