Conferences
Agritourism, Education and Economics on your Farm - Tools for Risk Management Centered Decision Making in Agritourism
Doolarie Singh-Knights, Cindy Martel, Daisy Fryman, Jodi Richmond, and Jennifer Poling
Summary
The 2011-2013 WV Annie’s Risk-Management Project series successfully trained more than 140 agribusiness operators, demonstrating a need for education in the five risk management areas. Feedback from project participants combined with WV tourism data on total visitor spending ($5.1 billion - 2012) and trending tourism niches (inter-generational travel, local foods/culinary tourism, last minute trips), indicate that new/additional agritourism and farm-based educational enterprises are of interest because of their flexibility and income-diversification potential for small operations. WV is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this opportunity having the highest family farms/capita in the nation and > 20,000 small/part-time operations.
Previous workshops in WV have explored agritourism/farm-based education opportunities and provided rationale for enterprise consideration. Survey feedback and focus group discussions suggest a risk-management approach is needed to provide tools and strategies to evaluate and manage the potential risks and returns associated with agritourism and farm-based education enterprises. This proposed session discusses priority areas and related risk-management tools in designing an agritourism/farm-based education workshop to enhance enterprise viability and profitability. Priority risk-management topics to be presented include Emerging Opportunities and Consumer Demand - Assessing Your Agritourism Potential; the Business-Side of Agritourism – Profitability and Market Feasibility; Farm/Food Safety and Emergency Planning; Event and/or Education Curriculum Planning; and Building Collaborations, Partnerships and Networks.
Session participants will learn about appropriate templates and exercises that can be adapted and used in planning their own agritourism and farm-based education workshops for their respective clientele, leading to risk mitigation and sound enterprise decision-making in agritourism and farm-based education operations.
Presentation Materials
Details
| Conference | 2014 Women in Agriculture Educators National Conference |
| Presentation Type | 30-Minute Concurrent |