Tennessee Agri-tourism Initiative: Turning Small Farms into Big Opportunities—USDA Rural Development and TDA Market Development

News Release — July 1, 2003

State's Agri-Tourism is Being Inventoried

(SPRING HILL, Tenn.) - Do you offer wagon tours of your farm? Sell cut-your-own Christmas trees? If so, you are engaged in agri-tourism, and the University of Tennessee Center for Profitable Agriculture wants to help your enterprise be more successful.

Agri-tourism attractions are becoming extremely popular across the state. They involve income-generating activities that combine elements of both agriculture and tourism. Some typical agri-tourism enterprises include agriculture-related museums, festivals and fairs, corn-mazes, farmers markets, pick-your-own farms, wineries, on-farm tours, retail markets and petting zoos.

Bed and breakfasts and enterprises that offer fee fishing are also considered agri-tourism attractions.

As the first phase of an agri-tourism initiative, the Center for Profitable Agriculture plans to inventory of the state’s existing agri-tourism attractions. Megan Bruch, a marketing specialist with the UT Agricultural Extension Service, said the center is in the process of contacting agricultural agencies and groups to help identify existing attractions in the state.

“We need help in identifying these operations,” said Bruch. “The success and value of the inventory depends greatly on assistance that we receive in identifying existing agri-tourism ventures,” she said.

The Agri-Tourism Initiative was unveiled in May by the Tennessee Departments of Agriculture, Tourist Development, and Economic and Community Development and the Center for Profitable Agriculture. The Center is a joint venture of the University of Tennessee and the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation. “The inventory will be instrumental in gaining the information necessary to support and promote Tennessee’s agri-tourism industry,” said Bruch.

If you are involved with or know of an agri-tourism attraction, please send the business name and contact information (name and telephone number) to the Center for Profitable Agriculture. You can e-mail the center at cpa@utk.edu, or fax 931-486-0141, or call 931- 486-2777. The deadline for submitting information is August 15, 2003.

Bruch said the Center for Profitable Agriculture will follow-up with each enterprise to obtain specific information that will assist with industry research and promotion. The goal is to make the endeavor more financially successful.

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Contacts: Megan Bruch, 931- 486-2777; Patricia McDaniels, 865-974-7141