General News

Agritourism Kit provides information for expanding a farm business

February 29, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The County of Simcoe has created an Agritourism kit to assist local farmers who are considering expanding their operation to include opening to the public in a variety of ways.

The Kit is designed to help farmers ensure an agri-tourism operations are profitable. It offers information about things like farmer’s markets, culinary tourism destinations, and other rural tourism operations.

Information provided helps you decide whether agritourism is right for you. It also outlines the steps needed to add an agritourism component to an existing farm business and how to grow that business.

The Kit is divided into four components based on a standard business development planning approach.

Prepare: This section will help you determine if agritourism is right for you, your family, and your farm. It also will direct you to resources to consider if you are unsure whether you want to venture down this path.

Plan: If agritourism is for you, this section will walk you through key considerations for your farm before you welcome guests. This stage requires a considerable amount of time and effort and will steer you toward resources that will make this process more streamlined.

Launch: This section will provide you with resources to support your agritourism business once you open your doors to the public.

Evaluate: Once your business is fully operational, you can evaluate how your business is performing in order to plan how to strengthen it, as well as assess ways you can troubleshoot the unforeseen challenges of operating an agritourism business.

Simcoe County welcomes approximately 9 million visitors every year, generating approximately $1 billion in economic activity. Food and beverage specifically make up 39 per cent of all tourism spending across the County.

The number one activity that visitors to the region engage in is ‘any outdoor activity.’

This gives Simcoe County a strong natural advantage for the development of agritourism activity.

The Agritourism Toolkit can be found on the Simcoe County website.


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