By Cat Holmes
University of Georgia
Schoolchildren love to visit an agri-maze of bright green corn
plants in Taylor County, Ga.
Blueberry lovers can pick bucketfuls of fruit at a blueberry farm
in Watkinsville.
Wine aficionados tour more than a dozen vineyards in north
Georgia, courtesy of the Georgia Wine Trail.
Examples of farmers with too much free time? On the contrary,
these farmers are part of a growing trend in the state called
agritourism.
According to Kent Wolfe, an economist with the University of
Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences,
agritourism has the potential to be a big boost in Georgia, where
agriculture forms the backbone of the economy and farm revenues
have recently declined.
The tourism and travel industry is estimated to grow by 28
percent from 1997 to 2007, with agricultural and nature-based
tourism anticipated to grow 30 percent over the same period.
“There is a growing market for these activities,” Wolfe said.
“It’s a way for farms to generate income and to provide education
opportunities to folks.”
The biggest barrier between consumers who are hungry for such
experiences and land owners, farmers and businesses who have such
enterprises to offer is lack of knowledge, said UGA economist
John McKissick.
To put an end to that problem, UGA economists have created AGNET,
http://www.iiseyes.org/agnet/, a Web site for agritourism in
Georgia.
“There’s a growing opportunity for farmers and growers to get a
piece of the booming tourism industry,” Wolfe said. “But people
need an easy way to find these places, which are usually more out
of the way. AGNET is our answer but in order to make it work, we
need submissions.”
Wolfe defines agritourism as the act of visiting a working farm
or any agricultural, horticultural or agribusiness operation for
the purpose of enjoyment, education or active involvement in the
activities of the farm or operation.
“It could be a working dairy farm or plant nursery that’s open
for school tours, it could be a roadside stand, it could be a
horseback riding enterprise,” Wolfe said. “There are all kinds of
pick-your-own places and fee-hunting places all over the state.
We’d like to have them all listed on AGNET.”
Wolfe added that nature-based activities like bird watching,
fishing and nature trails are other examples that fall under
agritourism.
To have a business listed on the AGNET website, the owner needs
to get in touch with their county extension agent. That number is
usually listed in the county government pages of the phone book,
under “cooperative extension” or “extension.” The county
extension agent will post the information about the business on
the Web site.
As a bonus, businesses listed on AGNET will also be listed on the
Georgia Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism’s Web site,
http://www.georgia.org.
“Back in the old days,” Wolfe said, “people would visit relatives
who owned farms when temperatures in the city got too hot or they
wanted a change of pace. Now most people don’t have a relative
like that to visit. So agritourism is taking that place.
“Agritourism encompasses a wide range of things, from historical
farm tours, to hunting to road-side stands,” Wolfe said. “It was
big in the 1960 and 70s in the Northeast, and now we’re recycling
the concept in the Southeast.”
UGA economists have conducted several agritourism economic
feasibility studies and many are available on the UGA Center for
Agribusiness and Economic Development’s Web site, found under
“Publications” at http://www.agecon.uga.edu/%7Ecaed/.
