Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of our great Manitoba agritourism operators, their staff and families. Good luck in the new year.

A look into the future – Trends in 2012

According to DCI 68% of American’s are planning to travel outside of the USA in 2012. Surveying these people DCI has come up with a list of 5 major influences on how people plan and take their vacations.

1. Experience – people are looking for experiences in their travel. Of course everyone in Manitoba already knew this because we’ve been working on ‘experiential’ for a couple of years already. The experience is something that can set you apart and attract new guests.
2. Mystery Trips – these are trips to unknown destinations the traveller’s never been too. The mystery trip must be able to deliver and experience though. For example a beach vacation doesn’t have to be Mexico, it may move to South America. These trips will be sold and booked though travel agents so make sure you’re listed with your DMO’s.
3. Heritage Travel – finding your family roots is predicted to be a hugely increasing trend for high-end travelers. Manitoba’s small museums, towns and living history can provide a great opportunity.
4. Tourism Dollars Matter – the tourist is increasingly sophisticated in where they spend their money. The traveller is looking to spend money locally with businesses and on experiences that benefit local economies.
5. Cruising and Island Getaways – these are expected to rise in popularity in the coming year. These could be related to the recession fears and the need to know the final cost of a vacation before booking.

You can get the original article here. Good luck taking advantage of tha latest trends in travel and tourism for 2012.

Agritourism and Christmas – Our 100th Post

Agritourism operations do a lot of holidays extremely well. Halloween is the prime example, from pumpkins to haunted houses and corn mazes, farms across Canada and the USA offer some of the best, scariest, and most entertaining Halloween entertainment available.

At Christmas time though it seems like there’s a gap between the tourist and agritourism, so here’s some great examples of how farms are encouraging people to come visit over the Christmas season.

1. Christmas Trees – This one should be fairly obvious but maybe over looked. There are several Christmas Tree farms in Manitoba, you can see their association here. They offer a variety of activities in addition to trees, sleigh rides, campfires, petting zoos, etc.
2. Food – many agritourism operations host special holiday meals. These can range from a full four plus course meal to something more rustic cooked over an open fire. Some venues are even offering lessons on Country Christmas baking and treats.
3. Christmas decorations – in addition to trees, many places offer custom created wreaths, ornaments and decorations or workshops where tourists get hands on and make their own.
4. Santa Claus – what would Christmas be without Santa and imagine the experience for the tourist if Santa wereleading the sleigh ride and helping kids pick out their tree. And of course posing for pictures!

There are dozens of other ideas to incorporate this holiday into your business operations. Think about your unique opportunities and what your business does exceptionally and put a Christmas twist on it. Good luck & Merry Christmas.

New Opportunity for MB Agritourism

MLCC has released a new hospitality strategy for the province. Included in these new regulations is a reduction in red tape for setting up cottage wineries, brew pubs and micro breweries. There is some info available from the MLCC here. And if you really want to get a good handle on what this means to you come to the Direct Farm Marketing conference March 9 & 10 and go to the session with the MLCC.

Customer Service is Not the Answer

In a recent newsletter from John Stanley, (John was the keynote at the 2011 Direct Farm Marketing Conference) there’s a discussion about Customer Service. According to Sue Anderson of the Australian Retail Association, traditional customer service isn’t working as it used to. The expectation from consumers is good if not great service, which brings us to the concept of ‘Day Makers’. That is make the customers day. When was the last time you bought something or left a business with that happy feeling that your day got better?  What happened or didn’t happen that made you feel that way?

Most importantly how can you train/encourage staff to be ‘Day Makers’ for your customers. To do this they/you need superb customer service skills but also the time and empowerment to spend time with the customer and really understand what their needs are. Just getting your clients what they came in for probably isn’t enough to be a ‘Day Maker’. Spending a couple of minutes to understand what they’re trying to do, and then using your industry knowledge to add to, improve, or make their project easier could very well be the service that makes their day.

Facebook Laws

John Haydon an expert in using social media to promote non-profits has come up with 6 laws of facebook. Fortunately these laws apply equally well to agritourism operations.

1. Engagement – this is the “viral” part of social media. A facebook/twitter/google+ user doesn’t actively search out your page. They learn about your page through friends who have some connection to you. So engage with your current customers/users and their friends will become aware of you.
2. Native Language – speak on social media the same way you would speak to those people in person. Quoting from John “The native language of Facebook is human. It’s not Jargon, Acronym, or Brochure-speak. It’s simply the way you talk to your friends.”
3. The Flock – the average facebook user has around 130 friends (flock) so potentially every fan you have brings all of their friends with them. Engaging your fans will encourage their flocks to join your page and the description.
4. Law of Reason – there needs to be a reason for people to become fans of your page. You need to offer value to them. What can you offer that fans won’t be able to get by going to your website or joining a mailing list. What’s the reason for joining? This could be contests, special features, insider access or a special deal.
5. It’s a Stage – users will usually be more engaged with a positive experience than a negative one. “Make your fans look like rock stars…”
6. The Blessing – fans don’t trust you. Well it’s not that they don’t trust you it’s that they don’t trust marketing. You need the blessing of other fans to get through the cynicism and break down the marketing barrier.

If you would like to read the original article by John click here.

Tourism Resources

The Tourism Online Resource Centre (TORC) has a huge amount of resources for both Educators and Tourism Industry professionals. (Yes Agritourism operators count as Tourism Industry professionals)

The TORC is broken into several categories with different sectors listed in each. The products and activities section is listed alphabetically and the agritourism listing has 39 papers, reports, etc. listed.

There are lots of great information on the site so take a look over the slower winter season and see if you can’t discover something that you can use to take your business to the next level.

What’s Happening

There are lots of exciting things happening right now;

1. First off a big thank you to everyone who made Open Farm Day a success. Special thanks to the people who open their farms and businesses to the public and the volunteers who organized the suppers.
2. In case you missed it Travel MB is offering experiential tourism workshops this year. You can get more info here. (Note: The first workshop is Oct 17 – 20 in Riding Mountain)
3. The MLCC announced this spring that they are rewriting the regulations regarding wineries and micro-breweries. This represents a great opportunity for agri/culinary tourism in the province. Watch for more details coming soon.
4. Save the date for the Manitoba Direct Farm Marketing conference, happening March 9 & 10, in Gimli.
5. Lastly get out and enjoy the nice weather while it lasts. Go check out some of your fellow agritourism operators or check your regional tourism sites for what going on.

Open Farm Day, September 18, 2011

Do you know how to define yourself?

Below are some helpful definitions from Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development relating to agritourism and direct marketing. http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$Department/deptdocs.nsf/all/explore13590

Farm Direct Marketing
Selling farm direct means selling fresh fruits and vegetables, flowers, bedding plants, herbs, meats, jams, pies, sausages and other farm products at a farm or ranch gate, a farm or ranch store or stand, a roadside stall, an on-farm greenhouse, a U-pick farm, a community supported agriculture farm or by Internet or mail from a farm directly to the end consumer. Developing relationships with your customers is key to the success of this marketing channel. Many farm direct marketing businesses add ag-tourism events such as farm festivals, birthday parties and children’s activities to their marketing mix. These events bring more customers to the farm, encourage them to stay longer and spend more money.

Farmers’ Markets
A niche farm direct marketing channel which creates the opportunity for customers to buy Alberta grown food, crafts and homemade goods from the Alberta producer, crafter or entrepreneur. The resulting communication and sharing of information creates trust and builds a sense of community. The market is designed to become a destination and attraction which builds goodwill, sharing and community support reminiscent of the ‘town square’ of previous generations.

Community Shared Agriculture (CSA)
CSAs - community shared agriculture or community supported agriculture – are part of a growing social movement that encourages urban and rural citizens to share responsibility for the land where their food is grown as well as for how their food is produced. In simplest terms, CSA is a partnership between agricultural producers and consumers where consumers pledge support to a farming operation in advance of production occurring for the season. CSAs usually consist of a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit, in a vegetable box arrangement, and sometimes includes dairy products and meat.

Ag Tourism
Ag tourism is the marriage between two of Alberta’s top industries – agriculture and tourism. It presents the consumer or tourist with an opportunity to engage in a direct exchange of values between themselves and the farm community – whether it is at a farmers’ market, on a farm tour, at an agriculture festival or fair, or at a country vacation farm or market garden. Ag tourism is a collection of ag-based attractions, events and services:

• Attractions
• Heritage farms and ranches
• Farm recreation and visits
• Ag industry tours
• Events
• Festivals
• Fairs
• Rodeos
• Conferences/trade shows
• Horse and livestock shows
• Services
• Tour operators
• Retail
• Food and beverage
• Accommodation

Cluster Development
A cluster is a group of like-minded stakeholders and operators who come together to increase the profile for their operations and geographic area, along an ag tourism theme. Cluster development is an internationally recognized economic development process. We know that the ag tourism industry in Alberta can benefit from this process by using agriculture as a theme to link dispersed operators. Through cluster partnerships ag tourism operators can: access new markets, boost profile and awareness, and increase the overall appeal and draw to a region – ultimately resulting in increased profits.

Regional Cuisine
Regional cuisine advocates the usage of quality locally grown ingredients, in union with the culture, geography, and history of Alberta. The “Dine Alberta: Savour the Regional Flavour“ program is a stimulating way to showcase local agriculture products, family owned farms, and value added processing. Alberta’s best chefs, at restaurants, bistros, catered food events, B&B’s and meal preparation establishments are using Alberta’s best home grown foods to create unforgettable meals all year round.

Culinary Tourism
Culinary tourism is the marriage of tourism and regional cuisine. It advocates experiencing the food of the country, region or area, and is considered a vital component of the tourism experience.