Archive for October, 2009
Virginia Promotes Agritourism
Recently, I have been doing research in the state of Virginia regarding agritourism operators because I will soon be speaking in Richmond at the 7th Annual Small Farm Family Conference. It is often very difficult doing individual state agritourism research to find a good directory or even a poor directory of agritourism operators in the state.
However, I want to brag on the State of Virginia Tourism Department because they have done a great job in integrating farms and orchards into their website www.virginia.org for easy look up.
The search begins with a page titled “Living the Country Life” and from this page you can go to either Farm Stays or Day Trips. If we want to make it easy for people to find our farms we need to be sure our state tourism departments include us on their websites.
The other alternative of course is to search the Internet for farm activity directories that can provide us this information such as www.ruralbounty.com or www.cornmaze.com. These are two farm directories covering agritourism operations across North America.
The Internet is now the primary marketing tool of choice. It’s time for all states to follow the lead of Virginia and prominently highlight their agritourism operators. Actually – it’s a win-win for tourism and agriculture and the consumer.
Corn Mazes, Pumpkin Patches & More on Family Farms!
The first day of October and time to plan your trip to the local pumpkin patch. I have recently spent time in both Alberta and Ontario and pleased to report that fall season offerings have grown across North America to become a favorite family weekend activity. Of course, there are many agritourism farms that still have plenty of apples ripe for picking.
Corn mazes, pig races and pumpkin cannons continue to dominate fall festivals on agritourism farms. It appears that farmers today are truly enjoying coming up with new attractions to delight their guests. Other activities that I have seen on farms this year include: duck races, tube swing, maze in an orange grove, jumping pillow, zip line, underground slide, parrot feeding, animal shows, barrrel rides, gem mining, silo climbing, kids karaoke, evening haunted hayrides, flashlight mazes, bonfires and many more.
It is time to plan your trip now to go apple picking and pumpkin picking before time gets away from you. For a listing of farms in your area that offer great fall season experiences just go to www.ruralbounty.com to find farms near you.
