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Agri-tourism: an un-tapped market

The agri-tourism industry has just received a significant boost, which will bring over ??85,000 in business support to the sector. Find out what this could mean for the Scottish tourism industry.

Date : 28/05/2014

The importance of agri-tourism to the tourism sector is about to increase exponentially over the next few years as we realise the potential for growth in Scotland.

The term agri-tourism is defined as ‘tourism on a working farm or estate in which visitors can experience a direct connection with the host, rural life and/or the local environment, and where the provision of locally farmed produce is also an integral part of the experience.’

Farmers have been providing accommodation on farms for decades, and hugely popular farm shops are springing up, but if we’re to capitalise on the largely untapped market that agri-tourism could offer, we need to go the extra mile.

Learning from abroad

Farmers in other countries are way ahead of us and we can learn from their examples.

Italy is by far the world leader. There are 20,000 farms registered as agri-tourism accommodation, and it contributes the equivalent of £1 billion to their economy. 70% of visitors to the Sienna area alone are visiting for the agri-tourism experience. ‘Agri-Tourismo’ is well-defined by a law set out in 1985, which stipulates clearly the standard of service farmers must provide in order to be approved. Criteria include things like food served must be made of ingredients produced on the host farm or one of their neighbours.

But it goes much deeper than that; it’s a holistic approach to offering your warmest welcome, something Italian farmers are famous for. It’s an end-to-end visitor experience - about how you make the whole stay relate to the farm, its environment and the way of life there. It can be simple touches like offering home-made cakes or serving sausages made from cattle reared on the farm; or it could involve giving farm tours, organised nature trails into the woods and visits to see the new piglets, as farmers do in New Zealand and Australia.

Go Rural

Go Rural, has spotted an un-tapped market sector. It is leading a campaign to profile agri-tourism to consumers and give the sector a voice with Government. Go Rural is an independent group set up to give providers a voice in Scotland and help them realise the huge potential. It is part of a wider group called the Farm and Estate Diversification (FED) group which is looking at the bigger picture of what agri-tourism is worth to Scotland. It carries out research into the industry and has already been putting some qualitative and quantitative data behind the sector. The group brings together providers to understand some of the investment risks and assess whether agri is right for specific circumstances. Its aim is to help to grow the sector to the scale of Italy’s - worth £1bn per annum.

Go Rural has recently won a contract from Scottish Enterprise to facilitate two new agri-tourism monitor farms.

Go Rural’s Caroline Millar has years of research under her belt and believes that there’s work to be done to build awareness, construct a strategy and have some robust market data. She’s certain we are missing out on huge market potential.

Caroline says, “Sometimes people aren’t even aware they’re already operating in the sector.” It’s about differentiating the business from other rural tourism business. “If you have a cottage on a farm, that’s a more attractive option to some people than a stay in a self-catering cottage elsewhere.” The added value, she says, is “the link between what we eat with what’s grown in the field and how it is produced.”

Monitor farms

Peel Farm in Angus and Laggan Farm in Dumfries and Galloway have just been granted monitor farm status. Both have been running farm diversification business for some time, but have recently been appointed as monitor farms by the SRDP Skills Development Scheme, the Scottish Government and the European Union and managed by Scottish Enterprise.

These will provide the unique opportunity to bring business people from a variety of agricultural and rural, tourist, industry and leisure sectors together. Participants will collaborate, share ideas, experiences, data and knowledge to help define what Scotland’s agri-tourism identity is.

The aim at this early stage in the industry is to define Scotland’s agri-tourism offering and everyone involved in these two projects will be doing just that over the next 18 months.

What’s most important is not understanding what agri-tourism is now, but what it could and should be in the future, and how we can harness the opportunities it offers to boost the Scottish economy.

What’s happening down on the farm?

Apart from a rural escape, in a beautiful and remote place, some farmers are already thinking laterally. Just a few examples of what some farmers are offering:

  • The chance to eat super-fresh, locally produced food
  • Educational farm activities including understanding the production processes and learning what’s in season
  • Getting up-close to the farm animals, including feeding the lambs
  • Buying local produce in the farm shop
  • Events (festivals, open days, food markets, and lots of fun activities)
  • Outdoor activities (Laggan Farm boasts the longest zip-wire in Scotland)
  • Llama trekking
  • Cider tastings and brewery tours
  • Luxury spa holidays.

Food for thought

Look again at your business and see if there’s anything that you’re already doing that could be enhanced. Could you learn from others?

Do you have an agri-tourism idea and not sure if it’s going to work? Why not get involved through one of the monitor farm projects and test your ideas out in a low-risk environment or see what others are doing?

The second meeting will be held on 3 June at Laggan farm.

Get in touch with Go Rural to access the results and data, sign up to the newsletter, or go along to a monitor farm meeting.

Find out more about the exciting developments on Laggan Farm and Peel Farm.