IL Agritourism Development: A Five Year Perspective

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IL Agritourism DevelopmentA Five Year
Perspective

• Bruce Wicks, Ph.D.
• Dept. of Recreation, Sport Tourism
• University of Illinois Extension

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Why Agritourism?

• Trends Health, Cooking, Connection to land,
  Recreation and Tourism (Demand)
• Negative farm financials, yet ability to produce
  many products and experiences.
• Increase support for the Ag sector.
• Connect two of largest industries in state.
• Over 10 of US population within 5 hr. drive of
  C-U. (Demand) -

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Where Have We Been?

• 5 years ago Agritourism
  not on the agenda.
• South of I-80 didnt
  exist.
• Strictly an urban
  focus for IL tourism.
• Loosing state
  tourist dollars.-

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First Steps

• ORTD uniquely positioned between Ag and Tourism.
  (Extension)
• Networks with IBOT, RTDOs and CVBs already
  established.
• Little coordination in tourism and none in Ag on
  this issue. Individual/disjointed efforts.
• Agencies recognize opportunity.
• Heads in beds Direct marketing-

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Where We Are

• ATPI
• Il Dept. of Ag grant
• USDA Grant
• Specialty Growers Conf.
• IBOT/CVBs/RTDOs
  Getting it
• Other agencies coming on board
• Agritourism database. Market-maker.
• Significant positive growth across state.
• Still a lot of growing pains! -

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What Do We Promote?EVERYTHING

• Forest products
• Horticulture
• History
• Recreation
• Livestock
• Crops

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Where We Are Going?

• Relationship with Specialty Growers?
• Need to try and ramp up membership and revenues
  or scale back what we want to do.
• What do we
  want to do?
• Better web presence
• Advanced training
• More promotion
• More research -

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Its About Supply and DemandProducers and
Tourism Industry

• A significant mis-match continues.
• In product
• In philosophy
• Two huge
  industries not
  traditionally
  linked. -

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Hard to Coordinate

• Agriculture
• A way of life
• Commodity driven
• Individualistic
• Hard work solves problems
• Difficulty in placing a value on assets not
  related to production
• Anti-urban?

• Tourism
• Fast paced industry
• Customer driven
• Crowds
• Understands need for collaboration
• Customer service and packaging
• Selling the experience

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What Keeps Us Going?

• Supply
• Low farm profits
• Diversification
• Use all farm resources
• Develop hobbies into profit centers
• Retirement

• Demand
• Need for new and unique attractions
• Need to expand attraction base
• Stem tourist out-flow
• Help rural economy
• Capitalize on healthy lifestyle trends.

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What Are Those Trends?

• Leisure/travel
• More leisure for some and more stress for others.
• Desire for learning
• The travel experience
• Health and fitness
• Frequent short trips
• Activity focused -

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Trends

• Food
• Concern about altered food and food safety.
• Cooking for pleasure.
• Cooking for health
• Slow food buy local
• Desire for better quality
• Younger generation
• Loss of cooking skills -

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Trends

• Tourism
• Tourism leaders now get it.
• Agriculture IS our economic and cultural
  heritage.
• Growing number of success stories.
• Given agricultural potential and large market
  many opportunities remain untapped but the market
  has to grow along with production.-

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What We Know About The Market

• Il Agritourism demand study
• Earlier research looked at existing markets or
  farm businesses.
• But to improve marketing and product development
  we need to know the size and attitudes of all the
  rest of the population.
• Such information is important for guiding
  government tourism investments and agricultural
  policy.-

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Study Goals

• Goals
• Visitation patterns
• Activity preferences
• Motivations and constraints
• Opinions regarding farm visits
• Travel planning characteristics
• Demographics -

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Method

• Mail-out survey
• Random sample of 1,200 Illinois households
• Adjusted response rate of 15. (Ugh)-

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Current Agritourism Activities

• Most frequent
• Farmers markets
• Roadside stands
• Purchase flowers
• Least frequent
• On-farm B B
• Farm tour
• Farm visit
  recreation-

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Activity Preferences

• Most wanted
• Market, roadside stands and flowers/plants
• Visit historical/cultural sites, ag fairs, see
  wildlife, on-farm retail market, winery.
• Least desired
• Interactive farm
  activities
• Fishing and
  hunting-

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Motives and Constraints To Visitation

• Motives
• Clean and relaxing rural environment
• Fresh/healthy food
• Undisturbed nature
• Family togetherness
• Constraints
• Inadequate information
• Too expensive
• Inadequate hospitality
  services
• Family not interested-

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Market Segments

• Rural Escape
• Activities, food, rural exp. Older, wealthy.
• Socializing opportunity
• Families and locals, food. Higher ed. friends
• Farm experience
• Youth experience, attend events, education
• Outdoor recreation
• O.R, sports, younger, alone-

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Opinions About Farm Visits

• Love the outdoors
• Great places to take family/kids
• You can learn a lot from a farm visit
• Farm visit is a great break from routine
• Food purchased from the farm is better
• When on a farm I feel a connection to the land -

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Findings Locally Grown

• Over 4/5ths did or will purchase local produce.
• 90 of those were fruits and vegetables
• Constraints to purchasing more
• Lack of information
• Competitive price
• Inconvenient location
• 70 willing to pay more. Avg 15.

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Trip Characteristics

• ¾ on day trips
• Information source
• Friends/relatives
  personal experience
• Road signs
• Visitor center
• Newspaper ad
• Reasonable travel time
• 37 30min-1hr, 40 1-2hrs

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Where Are We Going?

• The journey has just begun.
• Demand for quality foods growing. More unique
  and personal food experiences are next. Culinary
  tourism.

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• The product is maturing. Better experience and
  then word-of-mouth.
• Barriers between farming and tourism are
  diminishing - but slowly.
• Women are in the lead.

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• Promotion, promotion, promotion.
• Ag sector getting it.
• Connectivity to land and food.

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Conclusions

• Consumer products and locally grown is the
  driving force. Great place to promote more rural
  visits/experiences.
• Yet the purpose for farm visits is not ag
  products per se. The travel experience.
• Information/promotion very important for this
  new tourism product.
• Family interest an important factor.

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THANKS

• Bruce Wicks, Ph.D. University of Illinois
• 217-333-6160 bew_at_uiuc.edu