Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
5
Agri-Entertainment or Agri-Tourism
I want the family farm, the backbone of our country's heritage - to thrive
and survive for future generations.
Jane Eckert, Agri-tourism Marketing Professional, USA
Introduction
Agri-entertainment or agri-tourism is basically entertainment on the
farm, which may or may not include a culinary element in the tourist
offer. Agri-tourism is one of the fastest growing tourism activities in the
USA and Canada and is now being developed by progressive farmers
around the world. In California alone 2.4 million people visited agri-tourism
sites in 2008.
1
It is estimated that over
87
million Americans visited a farm in the USA,
20
million of these were children under the age of
16.
This means there are
huge opportunities for agri-tourism ventures, but where do you start? One
valuable guide is 'Promoting Tourism in Rural America'.
2
In many countries there is a lack of comprehensive database research on
agri-tourism and all the research comes from the USA. Even in the USA over
half of the agri-tourism ventures did not exist
10
years ago.
The definition of agri-tourism as defined by the University of California
1
is 'a commercial enterprise at a working farm, ranch or agricultural plant
conducted for the enjoyment or education of visitors, that generates supple-
mental income for the owner.'
This means that farm shops and farmers' markets that are primarily
retail do not actually fall into this definition, although some authorities do
include retailing as an agri-tourism function.
