Engaging visitors on your farm through agritourism can transform a simple trip into a memorable experience. As more people seek authentic, hands-on activities, farms have a unique opportunity to diversify their income and connect with visitors by showcasing daily operations, offering interactive tours, and hosting fun, educational events. According to the 2022 USDA Ag Census, Kentucky has more than 700 farms offering agritourism experiences and that number continues to grow.
As you consider adding agritourism to your farm, check out our previous blog post on five important things to consider.
Since agritourism is such a growing industry, you may also be wondering how to set yourself apart from everyone else. Here are 5 ways to engage visitors on your farm.
Involve the Community: Consider partnering with local businesses or other farms in your area to create packages and activities to do in your area outside of your farm. This is a great way to collaborate with local businesses and cross-promote, and it allows them to refer their patrons to your farm. Your guests are rewarded with a great experience, will likely stay and spend more money in your area (keeping more dollars local), and you might even get more of your community members to visit for a “staycation”.
Educational Tours and Activities: The separation from farm to average person is continuing to grow. While many people might know where their food comes from , they might not be aware that Kentucky offers many of the items they find at their local grocery store, or that they can visit farms in their own community. Hosting “behind the scenes” educational tours and activities can help bring people together to learn, have fun and give you the opportunity to share your farm’s story. Experiences, for families and date nights or friends' nights, are growing in popularity. It is not enough to just go have dinner or lunch – people want to DO things. Think about what fun and/or educational hands-on activities your farm could consistently offer, while always keeping guest safety in mind.
Social Media: Your social media is an extension of your farm. Sharing your farm’s story, information, pictures of farm life, and upcoming events on your page extends your farm beyond the boundary of your actual property line. Sharing posts that you are tagged in from your visitors brings a realness to your page and shows that people are visiting and enjoying themselves.
Selfie and Photo Areas: People are on their phones more than ever, sharing posts about food, experiences, and helpful information. Creating an area on your farm that gives visitors a place to take a photo can provide a wealth of user-generated content for you to share on your farm’s social media pages. A photo area also encourages visitors to take photos and share them to promote their experience (and your farm!) to their family and friends.
Events and Workshops: Hosting occasional on-farm events, farm dinners, and workshops to teach “farm skills”, can engage people with your farm. These events don’t have to be large events; they can be small events or workshops. Sharing these on social media and collaborating with local businesses and restaurants (or food trucks) can also boost engagement. We’ll be talking more about hosting on-farm workshops in our next agritourism article, so stay tuned!
Engaging visitors on your farm does not have to be a huge campaign or require a large budget. A few simple items and some additional social media marketing can help encourage visitors and boost engagement. If you are interested in engaging visitors on your farm and need some assistance with where to start, feel free to reach out to us at kcard@kcard.info or at 859-550-3972.