Award-winning agritourism development by a NSW Council
Award-winning agritourism development
Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council near Wagga Wagga in NSW’s food bowl, the Riverina region, is one of Australia’s leading Councils for proactively developing agritourism.
In 2024 Council and Tilma Group won a National Economic Development Award for Excellence for Economic Development Initiatives in Regions Under 15,000 Residents for Council’s overall approach to agritourism development over several years with the support of Tilma Group.
How it started: Strategic planning
In 2018, Council developed a Rural Land Issues Paper on the opportunities of agricultural tourism. The region’s agriculture ranges from broadacre cropping and cattle in the north around Cootamundra to smaller landholdings, wineries and sheep in the south around Gundagai, and rich Wiradjuri agricultural history across the region.
Based on the Paper’s findings, in 2020, Council secured a grant to create an Agritourism Development Plan, and deliver mentoring to a handful of operators, which they hired regional tourism development consultants Tilma Group to deliver.
Tilma Group developed an audit of past, existing and potential agritourism experiences to help Council understand what kinds of experiences are already on offer, and be able to connect with the farmers delivering them.
The Agritourism Development Plan identified a need for a program to build the capacity of local farmers to enter into agritourism, and support existing agritourism operators to elevate and expand their offering. The plan identified seven product development opportunities, including farm stays, seasonal festivals, and tours.
How the Strategy was implemented: Capacity building
In 2022, Council secured further funding for such a capacity building program, and in 2023, hired Tilma Group to develop and deliver it.
We researched thoroughly what content should be included to help farmers understand the opportunities of agritourism, understand the tourism industry’s key players and what support they provide, and how to develop a new agritourism experience.
The resulting agritourism development guides include
How to develop a business case (including a business case template)
Risk management (including a risk management plan template)
Marketing (including a marketing plan template)
With agritourism being a rapidly growing sector, and new support being made available regularly, these graphic-designed guides were designed as Word documents so Council could update them as new resources for agritourism development become available. In fact, during the course of delivering this project, new resources became available from Destination NSW.
Tilma Group then delivered a 10-week mentoring program. The nine participants from eight farms worked on a wide variety of offerings with one-on-one support from Tilma Group:
New agritourism events, including seasonal local produce lunches, farm open days, and potentially a sunflower festival
New farm stay short term accommodations
Marketing tactics to deliver business objectives such as attract a new market (midweek visitors and weddings), increase occupancy, or launch a new experience
A new farm tour and art workshops
A new night wildlife spotting tour with astrology and storytelling.
A new self-guided Wiradjuri tour
A new plant nursery with coffee
The different needs of the established agritourism operators and new-to-agritourism farmers, as well as the differences in the products being developed, required a flexible, tailored approach to delivering business guidance support. Each mentee ended the program with an action plan, and other support, depending on their needs, such as a marketing plan or a risk management plan. The grant Council secured enabled extensive support of 8 to 12 hours per farmer.
At the end of the mentoring, Tilma Group delivered a series of webinars of inspiring case studies, with guest presenters:
Alicia Vohland of Windy Acres lavender farm on trialling offerings to figure out what makes sense financially, and growing a social media following before launching the business.
Julie Schmidt of Scenic Rim Council on developing a destination known for agritourism via collaboration with industry.
Rachael Lang of Diamondvale Estate luxury country cottages on working with other operators, surprising and delighting guests, and added-on experiences.
Suzannah Miller of Boho Cartel glamping retreat on high-style low cost start up, and events, weddings and groups.
Neil Druce of Junee Chocolate and Licorice Factory using tourism to drive product sales, marketing, and creating a highly appealing experience.
Dan Walker of Camden Park Station on storytelling to create an experience, and groups.
The recorded webinars were added to Council’s online agritourism development portal.
How the Strategy was implemented: Marketing
To wrap up the program, Council had an agritourism brand for the region developed: ‘Welcome to the Farm-ily’, and had a suite of photo and video content captured of the mentees’ agritourism offerings, and other attractions to be used in an upcoming marketing campaign.
How the Strategy was implemented: Experience design
Today, Council are having a master plan drawn up for redevelopment of Gundagai’s Old Mill as anchor agritourism attraction.
Support for your destination
If you are looking for support to grow agritourism in your region, please contact Linda Tillman on 0439 192 193 or via admin@tilmagroup.com.au
