Case Study: Agritourism development by a NSW Council
Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council near Wagga Wagga in NSW’s food bowl, the Riverina region, is one of Australia’s leading Councils for proactively developing agritourism.
In 2018, Council developed a Rural Land Issues Paper on the opportunities of agricultural tourism. The region’s agriculture ranges from broadacre cropping and cattle in the north around Cootamundra to smaller landholdings, wineries and sheep in the south around Gundagai, and rich Wiradjuri agricultural history across the region.
Based on the Paper’s findings, in 2020, Council secured a grant to create an Agritourism Development Plan, and deliver mentoring to a handful of operators, which they hired regional tourism development consultants Tilma Group to deliver.
We also developed an audit of past, existing and potential agritourism experiences to help Council understand what kinds of experiences are already on offer, and be able to connect with the farmers delivering them.
The Agritourism Development Plan identified a need for a program to build the capacity of local farmers to enter into agritourism, and support existing agritourism operators to elevate and expand their offering. The plan identified seven product development opportunities, including farm stays, seasonal festivals, and tours.
 |  |
 |  |
In 2022, Council secured further funding for such a capacity building program, and in 2023, hired Tilma Group to develop and deliver it.
We researched thoroughly what content should be included to help farmers understand the opportunities of agritourism, understand the tourism industry’s key players and what support they provide, and how to develop a new agritourism experience.
The resulting agritourism development guides include
- What is agritourism?
- What kinds of agritourism are permitted on my farm?
- How to develop an agritourism experience
- How to develop a business case (including a business case template)
- Risk management (including a risk management plan template)
- Marketing (including a marketing plan template)
- Support and training
With agritourism being a rapidly growing sector, and new support being made available regularly, these graphic-designed guides were designed as Word documents so Council could update them as new resources for agritourism development become available. In fact, during the course of delivering this project, new resources became available from Destination NSW.
 |  |
 |  |
Tilma Group then delivered a 10-week mentoring program. The nine participants from eight farms worked on a wide variety of offerings:
- New agritourism events, including seasonal local produce lunches, farm open days, and potentially a sunflower festival
- New farm stay short term accommodations
- Marketing tactics to deliver business objectives such as attract a new market (midweek visitors and weddings), increase occupancy, or launch a new experience
- A new farm tour and art workshops
- A new night wildlife spotting tour with astrology and storytelling.
- A new self-guided Wiradjuri tour
- A new plant nursery with coffee
The different needs of the established agritourism operators and new-to-agritourism farmers, as well as the differences in the products being developed, required a flexible, tailored approach to delivering business guidance support. Each mentee ended the program with an action plan, and other support, depending on their needs, such as a marketing plan or a risk management plan.
 |  |  |  |
At the end of the mentoring, Tilma Group delivered a series of webinars of inspiring case studies, with guest presenters:
- Alicia Vohland of Windy Acres lavender farm on trialling offerings to figure out what makes sense financially, and growing a social media following before launching the business.
- Julie Schmidt of Scenic Rim Council on developing a destination known for agritourism via collaboration with industry.
- Rachael Lang of Diamondvale Estate luxury country cottages on working with other operators, surprising and delighting guests, and added-on experiences.
- Suzannah Miller of Boho Cartel glamping retreat on high-style low cost start up, and events, weddings and groups.
- Neil Druce of Junee Chocolate and Licorice Factory using tourism to drive product sales, marketing, and creating a highly appealing experience.
- Dan Walker of Camden Park Station on storytelling to create an experience, and groups.
The recorded webinars were added to Council’s online agritourism development portal.
To wrap up the program, Council had an agritourism brand for the region developed (still to be launched), and had a suite of photo and video content captured of the mentees’ agritourism offerings, and other attractions to be used in an upcoming marketing campaign.
Please share this case study with our regional councils to inspire them on their agritourism journey.