Regional Agritourism Strategies for Community Economic Development

today we are discussing regional agritourism strategies for community economic development this virtual gathering is the ninth in a series leading up to the international workshop on agritourism which will take place in vermont in person in august of 2022 until then we are planning to keep these virtual connections going in a variety of different ways to strengthen the agritourism network and i want to mention that we are open to new ideas for connecting and new topics and speakers so please feel free to get in touch with me if you have suggestions a major sponsor for the vermont conference and for these virtual gatherings is yonder a new booking site that promotes farm stays and other nature-rich guest experiences founded and advised by farmers yonder highlights stewards that have a connection to their local community practice environmental responsibility and exhibit hospitality that's reflective of this commitment through the yonder site and app guests can discover and book overnight stays and activities at farms in the us and now also in europe yonder has been expanding around the world and they have been an incredibly important partner for the international agritourism network that was launched at the first world congress on agritourism in italy back in 2018 and was organized by eurek research until we can meet again in person at the conference in vermont in august of 2022 we're continuing to build this network through virtual gatherings and other means and i'm going to talk a little bit more about some virtual gatherings that are coming up soon like one organized by agritourism india this that's happening this weekend i'll talk about that at the very end um but first um before we dive into today's discussion i want to get a sense of who is with us and i'm going to launch a poll right now you should see on your screen a question that says describe yourself check all that apply and i can see that many of you are pros at this many of you have been to these uh agritourism gatherings before and i can see the numbers coming in so we'll give you just a minute uh um respond and i want to also after you've responded and clicked on the various buttons that represent the various jobs and affiliations that you have if you wouldn't mind take a moment to type into chat and introduce yourself i have the privilege of being able to look at the registration list and i was able to see that we had almost 400 people from over 30 different countries registered today and i could see that it was an incredible mix of producers government agency tourism professionals educators researchers service providers um however you don't you don't get to look around the room and see all the faces and see the many different nationalities and ideas and businesses that are represented so feel free to type into the chat and introduce yourself oh and when you type into the chat make sure that you select panelists and attendees otherwise the panelists get to see who you are but everybody else doesn't and of course only type into chat if you feel comfortable i'm sharing the results now and it looks like we're about a quarter tourism professionals closely followed by researchers and non-profits at 24 and 23 and then we've got a good mix of farmers extensions and service providers coming in at 20 percent and as well as educators and government agencies and other right up there i'll stop sharing the results and i will also stop sharing my screen because i now want to introduce our moderator catherine malonsi katherine is a consultant who advises hospitality travel and tourism ventures on strategy sustainability and business development with a background in gastronomy and regenerative agriculture and inspired by years spent in italy catherine's area of expertise is agritourism she designs and facilitates cultural and leadership experiences around food and nature she's based in the hudson valley of upstate new york and has been instrumental in coordinating and curating this series of agritourism gatherings including today's amazing lineup of speakers catherine i'll hand it over to you now thank you lisa hello everyone and uh welcome we've been so uh moved by the outpouring of support for this series and today is the last one so it's bittersweet for us we've had a great time running the series since september and i encourage you all to go to the website and view some of our past panels today we're talking about the role of agritourism in sustainable rural and community development and we will hear three diverse case studies that explore how agritourism can shape and contribute to regional economic development and tourism planning strategies as lisa said i'm based in upstate new york in the northeast of the us and when i moved to this region what is referred to as the hudson valley centered around the hudson river this subject that we're discussing today was the topic of my own research and work here the region where i live is renowned for its mountainous landscapes and natural beauty and its agricultural heritage the main crops here are grains and and apples and the region has a long-standing reputation as a retreat from urban life of near nearby new york city and boston and we have an impressive and growing roster of award-winning restaurants and chefs in the region who focus on farm ingredients and the interest in the regional food system continues to grow visitors are coming here drawn to experience this place through agriculture and cuisine and the question is that we'll discuss today how to integrate these experiences into a system that benefits everyone not least of all the farmers and food producers how do you make this happen and in my experience it depends on upon collaboration across sectors you need marketing clout you need investment to individual businesses you need government agencies and extension providers and all of the representative stakeholders that we saw are listening into this panel today to work together and certainly um i i trust our panelists will illuminate their own pathways towards similar visions in their regions and that they will improve our understanding of how agritourism activities can contribute to revitalizing rural communities and this conversation feels uh of particular importance in a period of travel and tourism uh characterized by both a resurgence in the postcovid world although i'm aware of certainly doesn't feel post in many uh countries around the world so let's say within the pandemic era travel and tourism having a new look at the look at the industry practices and also [Music] a period where the the traditional patterns of rural development or the failures one could say of rural development are coming into light and and people are looking at new ways of social change and and structure so um all of that we hope is rooted in a more ecologically sound future with lots of localized solutions at the forefront so with that i would like to introduce our first panelist who can tell us a bit more about the beautiful photograph of the woman with the rose petals that was on our invitation to today's gathering shiva shiroosh nia studied environmental economics and currently she is a researcher in sustainable tourism and agritourism she is speaking with us from iran today and her professional journey started 10 years ago when she began working with ngos and sustainable development projects she's also worked for well-known organizations such as the undp and tna these projects familiarized shiva with sustainable development and ecotourism as a means to improve people's livelihood and the environment she is also currently an international tour guide and is working on developing business plans focused on sustainable tourism to enhance the regional economy with minimum impact on the environment shiva also participates in numerous volunteering projects mostly educational ones and she received the good citizen award from the municipality of tehran due to her sustainable development activities congratulations on that she is passionate about hiking traveling and exploring nature and various cultures and she loves art and yoga which are two important parts of her life we're so happy to have you with us shiva i will turn over the screen and the microphone to you thanks catherine and hello everyone i'm so glad that today i'm here and i can show you the rose water festival which we call its iran and i wanna just take you to a tour and i hope you enjoy it uh so with no waste of time i wanna share you share with you my screen and talk about color beauty festival and everywhere around around saran new south koshewan villages hundreds of tons of roses are cultivated distilled and turned into rose water their production of rose water in iran has a long history of more than 2 500 years and the ancient cities of kashan and ramsar are among their leading centers for production of rose water in iran here you can see doma scrolls which we are going to talk about today um currently 15 000 hectares is under the cultivation of the moscow's in iran and 22 000 tons rose water is produced and one year also iran with thirty thousand tones thomas groves is the first producer of this flower in the world we export forty percent and we use sixty percent of this amount okay uh where exactly is iran according to the map uh which i show you iran is located in west asia and borders the caspian sea uh persian gulf and gulf of oman and the place and region that we want to talk about is kashan in center of iran which has a dry environment and uh it is well known for its golovkin festival based on resources and plans biological scientists point of view origin of thomas gross production started from iran after the attack of alexander the macedonian they brought this plan to macedonia and bulgaria for cultivating there the interesting about production of rose water in iran is the technology of this production is almost the same for 2500 years in iran and the economy and the liver and life of people living in kashan is dependent economically dependent to this flower to some extent that sometimes 80 percent of the villagers income depended on damascus production we call domus grows an aromatic gold here because this plant is cultivated in mountain foothills and dry areas which there is a little possibility of cultivating other plants and also the essence and essential oils extracted from this flower is among the most expensive ones about the harvesting rose water harvesting doma screws i should say that harvesting damascus is a family activity every member of the family participate and tourists also can participate in harvesting too and cultivating domes grows and producing rose water does not need need a huge amount of investment and also large amount of water so they make it possible for villagers in kaushan to have this business from the mid from middle of may to middle of june kamsa becomes a dazzling compass of pink roses and rose up in rows of plants known in iran as mohammed roses bloom over the course of 25 days and every year tourists from all over the country and abroad come to watch the workers and farmers and entire families uh pick roses and distill them into rose water one of the farmers said it's the best to finish picking flowers before the sun comes up over the mountains because the direct sunlight and heat cause the delicate fragrance of the roses to evaporate resulting in low quality rose water now we pick the flowers and we are taking them for distillation process harvested flowers are placed in copper pots with added water and then sent to an oven made made of bricks and cement or a stone and mud then an intense fire is kind of and while the water boils rose water steam is released with essential oils which condenses and flow through aluminium pipes into a special container the entire distillation process takes about four hours and as a result they get 40 litres of rose water out of 30 kilogram of flowers and the amount of roses varies depending on whether you want heavy or light extract uh the main products of rose water in iran are the main products of thomas grows in iran are rose water essence and dried kettles which are used for pharmaceuticals perfumes cosmetics and food industries and despite the harsh economic time in iran the rose water business is thriving as domestic and international demand continuously grows and here i want to thanks my friend ibrahim malek for his contribution in taking photos of golovkin festival and you can see his other wonderful photos in his website economic benefits play the primary role in impact of collaborative festival and tourism development in the area with rising capital value job diversification and increasing villagers income and according to studies there is a meaningful relationship between regional development and the number of thomas gross producers also there is a meaningful relationship between damascus production and local accommodation in other words rising in domestic production with increased local accommodation developments which would cause increasing in other activities to develop tourism in the area which all would lead to enhancing the living quality and producing power of villagers uh when the number of tourists in the area increase the price of farmland would increase too which is a development index of a region since they increased the liability of villages by attracting more tourists and increasing local accommodation for tourists and returning people to their motherlands and encouraging young people to stay in their villages and don't immigrate to cities uh one of the results of gulab beauty festival is in the last two decades is rising local accommodation and restoring old and traditional houses which empowers tourism in the area and attract thousands of national and international tourists annually to the area every year 2 million national tourists and 200 000 international tourists visit kashan and here you can see some renovated houses that tourists can use in the region about the gulab biryan kobe 19. um during the this time for some for the restrictions we have in the country production of rose water is still ongoing but tourists cannot attend to that thus farmers lost their profits gains from tourists visiting their villages and the direct purchase day and they had and farmers should sell their products to intermediaries at lower price and obviously they lose a considerable amount of profits and now i want to share with you some other activities that farmers and villagers do in the area besides um producing rose water for diversifying their income like beekeeping in thomas groves gardens pottery and other types of arts in crush on uh you can see rocks and carpets in the region which some of them have their design of thomas grows also making copper products in caution is so popular you can buy some pickles and other foods produced in kashan also you can buy pastries there they serve their guests with these kinds of pastries they are so delicious and ash which is our traditional dish this is kind of a thicker soup so nutritious and delicious you can find it everywhere in in godavi festival and in other occasions and in every place uh damascus gross jam some herbal drinks uh essential oils essence and um damascus syrups are the other products of thomas rules and i wanted to show you um the role of damascus on iranian architecture that you can see it not only in koshan but in other places um that thomas shows that are designed in the architecture all over the country at the end i want to just talk about two celebration ceremonies we have in our country which are related to dhamma scrolls and rose water the first one is if you want if i want to just enter introduce uh and translate the word for you nowruz is the most important ceremony of iranian people for over 3 000 years in which we celebrate the first day of solar year and it is the beginning of the spring and the meaning of nourisher means the celebration of rivers this ancient ceremony takes place at the end of winter and people come together to dredge and clean the river basins and springs and they do this work while they are sinking and playing traditional music and they pour rose water in water and thanks the rivers and the springs for flowing again and this is and in this way um they have a beautiful connection with nature uh however unfortunately there is no longer take place every in every region of iran but we can still see that in some areas like kashan or dong the last tradition is called rolling in flowers and this is for babies who see the first spring of their lives and it is done by the mother aunts and grandma for this tradition a few family members and family women go to the gardens and pick thomas closes while they're singing a special songs then they shower the baby and light him or hair in a white clothes full of thomas gross petals and while holding the four angles of their clothes they sing some special songs about beauty and roll the baby in the petals then they serve the guests with pastries and traditional drinks and people in kashan believe that rolling babies in the muscle roses would cause his freshness and happiness and stay away from ugliness and visas also the freshness of flowers protect this enough babies thanks for your attention i hope you enjoyed that and i hope i could show you the primary role of rose water festival and as a primary key to sustaining rural economic development by letting farmers diversify their income regenerate communities and preserve the culture and in general regional development uh i would be happy to answer all of your questions this is my email address and thanks again for your attention i would stop my screen sharing okay thank you shiva beautiful and as a new mother i wish i could roll my new daughter in lots of rose petals uh what a beautiful tradition thank you so much for sharing with us and you're welcome please uh do uh type in any questions you have for shiva or any of the panelists into the q a down at the bottom of your screen as we go we will have time for questions hopefully at the end so without further ado i would like to introduce our next panelist trevor jonas benson trevor is a social-minded systems thinker a progressive project manager and an extroverted intrapreneur since 2006 he has been supporting the development of local sustainable food systems in canada and abroad trevor is passionate about collaborating with others to create meaningful change in the way that people experience food and he enjoys nothing more than working with the peoples that make it taste so great and trevor in 2013 to 2015 was engaged by the culinary tourism alliance to design develop and implement feast on a local food certification project that recognizes champions to ontario's food service industry and after playing uh an instrumental role in successful completion of 25 social enterprise and social innovation projects with eco ethonomics trevor returned to the cta in 2017 to lead the development of its mission-based social enterprise consultancy as vp of destination development trevor oversees all aspects of the cta's professional services division including managing highly participatory and asset-based food tourism development projects at the local regional and national levels in the past three years he has contributed to over 30 projects 26 of which he has managed or is currently managing examples of his past projects i believe he's going to draw on uh within his presentation uh and we're delighted to have um his his knowledge uh from the tourism industry association of canada uh as well as his other project so i will turn it over to you trevor thank you so much for being here thanks so much catherine and sheba i think as a tired father i'd be quite keen on one of those beddings of roses at this moment but maybe i'll have to settle for a bowl of awesome in cushion so i really enjoyed your your presentation and thank you uh thank you for it you should be able to see my screen now correct um so thank you catherine and thank you to eurek research and the university of vermont extension specifically lisa for this opportunity to present to you today as mentioned so my name is trevor i'm looking forward to sharing a little bit more about our work in regional agritourism strategy development specifically in canada before i do that i'd just like to begin by acknowledging that my office is located in the unseated territory of algonquin ashnavik nation and i'm grateful to all first nations inui and metis peoples for their past and present contributions to the place that i'm privileged to call home over the past few years at the culinary tourism alliance we've had the ultimate pleasure of supporting the development of indigenous food tourism strategies here in the province ontario and i'm so looking forward to seeing indigenous food ways and tourism experiences become a meaningful part of canada's agri-tourism offering in the years to come for those of you who may not be as familiar with your organization as catherine mentioned we're called the culinary tourism alliance we were established in 2006 to implement a 10-year ontario culinary tourism strategy so for our province of ontario which to put in perspective for those from an international uh audience is about the size of france we're a fairly uh chunky province of canada uh in 2011 we incorporated as a non-for-profit industry organization to support uh the growth and development of culinary tourism both near and far and we include agri-tourism in culinary or food tourism our mission is very simple it's to bridge the gap between the food and drink and tourism industries and our vision is that culinary tourism and agritourism become meaningful and sustainable contributors to local economies and destination worldwide i won't go much into detail around how we do that aside from just echoing uh um uh catherine's comment that we do programs we do uh we have an amazing program called feast on and i have the pleasure of overseeing our professional services by way of context canadians are not just nice people who say thank you and apologize for everything and use the letter letters e and h to kind of end every sentence a even though it's all true we're also highly connected to our local food systems and our agricultural heritage we're a vast country and we're very keen to share kind of our taste of place with visitors who come from both near and far and i say near and far because canada's as mentioned a really really big place and what this means for agritourism is oftentimes local and domestic visitors are the target for agritouristic activity it also means that agritourism can take on many different shapes and forms in some of the places that we work this may be as broad as including say a farm to table meal at a restaurant that's highly connected to its local food system uh in other places it may actually include participating more meaningfully or more immersively in harvesting of the production of food and that would qualify as the agritouristic experience as such much of our regional agritourism strategy work involves really exploring what agritourism means in its local context and most specifically within the communities that engage us so how they see agritourism as helping their economic development as kind of um helping to regenerate their spaces their places uh prevent the brain drain connect people to their rural and remote destinations and ultimately benefit all those who call the destination home so what i'd like to do is kind of look at four different uh cases if you will a project that we've had the pleasure of engaging in over the past few years the first one is an area called peterborough and the kawarthas which is the home or one of the homes to butter tarts it's also uh the home or arguably the home to an amazing heritage crane called red flap wheat which was originally sent from scotland i see caroline miller as one of the participants so thank you um and i want to talk a little bit about the project that we had the pleasure of engaging in in 2018 which had us actually see uh lisa and some of the uvn team participate in the first world congress on agri-tourism so in 2018 peterborough and the court as economic development tourism embarked on a journey with their tourism partners really to explore agritourism as a growth opportunity for the region they're already a destination and this was a huge interest and opportunity around kind of expanding what tourism meant to the communities that make up this destination so as mentioned i'm in ontario and peterborough is also located in ontario it's just north of the big lake ontario and it's in between toronto which is the capital of our province in ottawa which is where i'm located in the capital of our country one of the outcomes of the process that we engaged in with peter mccorthas was definition of agritourism that really felt uh fit their context for for them and kind of where we netted out with the work is agritourism includes diverse experiences that connect locals and visitors alike to where their food comes from whether directly through an activity that happens at the place of production or in this case indirectly by engaging with the people behind it so as you can see in taking inspiration actually from lee sin and uvm's work on their concept map we put together this interesting concept map that really reflects this particular destination and communities understanding and manifestation of agri-tourism it includes broadly kind of the environment more specifically the spaces in this case farmers markets are included parks experiential farms the experiences obviously and then the economy at the heart and people most importantly not every project that we've had the pleasure of getting involved in includes kind of figuring out what agritourism means for that destination but more often than not it's such an important part of the conversation unlike the us and unlike some of our european counterparts and other places in the world we don't have a canada-wide definition we do have provincial policy statements and territorial policy statements that allude to the agri-tourism kind of definition or definitions that would include agritourism such as the diversified use of farmlands but oftentimes we actually need to work towards thinking about what that definition is for the community and how it can be included in more formal documentation so just recently we finished an interesting project with the town of essex to develop a three-year strategy with their administration and what was interesting uh in this particular circumstance and it's one of the takeaways that we have from a project is when you have a council and you've got administration or uh you've got kind of a local government that's highly supportive of agritourism development you can really move mountains you can really stimulate agritourism growth and encourage industry to pursue agritourism in their own right so to guide the development of the town of essex agritourism strategy we identified four specific objectives um one of them was establishing a shared understanding of agritourism amongst stakeholders so if you're an existing tourism stakeholder maybe you're in the wine trade you engage in wino tourism or other forms of tourism in this destination they're right by the water it's such a beautiful place you know one of the key things that we want to do is explore how these stakeholders understand and business understand agritourism we wanted to also assess or evaluate challenges to developing agri-tourism in the region we want to identify specific strengths and opportunities within the egg tourism sector and we did look at a multi-sectoral approach to catherine's kind of comment we think this is really really important and then ultimately look at what are realistic actions that the that can stimulate the visitor economy and see the destination grow through agri-tourism uh in the immediate kind of first 12 months and short term one to two years and what we ended up netting out with which was passed by council a couple weeks ago was kind of 12 key actions that are very actionable and they're not as kind of aspirational and kind of far off in the future but really specific items that really uh kind of roll into four key areas growing agritourism as a priority so saying hey this is this is what we stand behind this is something that we see for growing our economy and growing our community strengthening agri-tourism networks you know it's so important to kind of tighten the collaborative and the in the network potential when it comes to agri-tourism because it's it's relationship the local food system enhancing the ego tourism offering and ultimately attracting visitors if we kind of head west in our country which is no small feat it you know few hours flight the many many days drive over to alberta agri-tourism it's really important to say that it doesn't always stand alone we had the opportunity to work with a county called leduc county around an economic diversification strategy and what this really told us kind of in our experience last year was that egotourism can actually be a small but very important part of a larger approach to economic development so widely positioned as a tool for economic development rural economic development agritourism can help stimulate diversified use of agricultural lands it can help rural communities specifically combat depopulation as i mentioned earlier preserve cultural heritage and food you know celebrate food waste transition away from commodity production promote innovation uh regeneration and resilience and diversify revenue streams for agricultural smes which are all really really important for increasing on-farm employment retaining staff increasing public access and awareness around food producing places spaces and peoples so in the case of leduc county which is located directly south of edmonton in alberta we were able to participate in a much larger conversation around the role that agritourism can play in an area that's really highly dependent or was highly dependent on oil production so with its agricultural foundation and its proximity specifically to edmonton and kind of these transportation routes and the phasing out of coal-fired electric generation laduke county is really well positioned to explore potential ways to link current and future rural land users with economic diversification and development and this is really key because they saw the potential develop tourism but more specifically with their agricultural land base agritourism as a means to really empower and kind of support uh small producers and small smes to become more sustainable through product development through experience development and really through optimizing their utilization of existing infrastructure and resources it's such an amazingly rich place uh due to its history historical ties to coal-fired electric generation but you know the game is changing and in this particular county saw as part of the rural kind of diversification strategy looking at what they have celebrating what they have and really focusing on tourism as an opportunity for the agricultural producers to participate in and what they have this amazing vision to see agritourism thrive in the years to come just yesterday we had the pleasure of having an industry forum in an area nearby to ladue county but at the foothills of the canadian rocky mountains called the foothills foothills county where we're participating in a research and capacity building project and the focus of this particular project in this particular regional approach to agritourism development is really looking at kind of an interesting perspective on agritourism that's more focused on kind of uh um a definition of egotropics highly highly uh connected to ranchers and to the spaces and places that make up this county this kind of um uh amazing feeling that you have the foothills of these amazing mountains and this experience that you can have which is you know exposing yourself to this rural landscape this rural lifestyle and one of the things that we're learning from this particular project and working to kind of not only do research but kind of think about supports for industry is the need to really uh add clarity around who's doing what is it you know who's involved in this particular conversation who should be involved what are they doing um and this is not exclusive to industry what's the role of local government what's the role of administration how can we create clarity around the pursuit of agritourism so that there's less barriers less red tape there's more opportunity and there's more collaboration among um among stakeholders so i just kind of really quickly touched on four projects of which we were involved in in many many projects but these ones are specific agritourism i'd like to just share kind of some of the things that we picked up along the last couple of years uh in participating these regional agritourism strategies one of them is that communication is absolutely vital and open communication and at all levels not not only amongst industry but between industry local government specifically and then of course through destination managers marketers and stewards it is absolutely vital to kind of understanding how agritourism is part of a community how it can become part of that community's future ultimately communities in control and that's the most important kind of takeaway for us but sometimes people don't know and industry and business owners and operators are so close to their business that they don't know what's so special about it we have the ultimate pleasure of discovering these amazing untapped food ways in these and these places and these processes that are such uh interest and value to visitors whether they're coming from just down the road or from further afield so really kind of working with community to kind of reflect on what it is that makes us special um agritourism we feel is only going to grow in the post-pandemic we're particularly excited about this in the canadian context people have only become closer to their supply chains it started with toilet paper it ended with people cooking for themselves and being extremely excited about these these food sources and things that we take for granted whether or not picking apples visiting a pumpkin farm or participating in in a harvest and really getting to know a farmer producer are things that we see only increasing in demand in the years to come so with that and i know i'm kind of early but happy world ag or tourism day i know it's coming up on the 16th i would love to engage in more conversation if there's time after leila's presentation but lovely to see you all and let's stay connected thank you thank you trevor i see that a number of people are asking for our transcripts of your presentations and we'll we'll have to uh figure that out you rattled off so many wonderful benefits of agri-tourism and packed a lot in there so um no doubt people would like to follow up um and i want to give due time to our uh our final uh panelist leila kartishtali who is uh [Music] joining us today from georgia the country not the state and uh leila used to work as a tourism consultant uh her first practical experiences in tourism began as a tour guide um and she worked as the head of a rural tourism project at the association of organic farms el cana where she initiated the establishment of the first rural tourism network in georgia she recently wrote her doctoral dissertation at boku university in vienna and after studying at the academy leila continues her consultation career now works as a food and agriculture organization faux fao national agritourism consultant in georgia the ambition there is to combine consultancy activities with academic careers and introduce education to a new generation of sustainable tourism professionals and experts and layla will share about the development of agritourism in georgia and introduce the experience and recent practice of working with various stakeholders to facilitate workshops and collaborative approaches so thank you laila for being here and for sharing with us thank you for inviting me i'm really great it's my pleasure to share my experience with and talk with my colleague as a speaker so i will share on my screen and you do it do you see it right so as the catherine um mention it i will speak about agriculture's development the story of agritourism in georgia and share experience what i i gained from our projects and working with fowl so agriculture despite the widespread uh concept of agritourism in developing a developed world this is a quite new concept for georgia i recently developed that it is more invaded still in rural tourism uh in rural tours which is became an integral part of policy documents and strategy uh documents of the country and comparing for example other countries in central and eastern europe it's occurred relatively late due to the political situation and uh lack of tourism infrastructure in general the agri-tourism uh as a product as a new alternative forms of tourism was first initiated by organic farming association el cana as catherine noted i used to work and still has a project with them with the organization and uh el canna was looking for supplement source of supplementary income for farmers to sustain organic farming and um and introduce these interesting farms and the traditional way of uh producing to tourist market and key players of commercialization of agriculture's product and present on international market where of course the tour operators who knew well what uh post modern tourists are looking for new experiences and emotions and uh some new topics and education escape is what we what is known for us what gives experiences for uh for travelers so they packed nicely these uh packages and the arcana um played the bridging uh role between tourist market tour operators and farmers and i remember the first feminization trips farm trips we named to take two operators and uh show them and then pick how to interpret how to interpret and present this as a packages and considering the number or given the number of theoretical um contribution to the concept of ugly tourism visiting farms is more appropriate uh concept for georgia at this moment because this is a part of component of tour operators because we know that agri-tourism is not only um the tasting and sailing product this is the complex of product including hospitality education and entertainment recreation so uh farmers uh there are a few farmers still who has a wide spread of complex product and they can sell it a week or two week pro products so they are more like visiting we we name the visiting farms are more spread at this moment um and now the tandem and the collaboration of farmers association and tour operators and also government agencies were interesting um when we saw that uh for tourist market some some traditional forms of product processing was very interesting and very authentic and unique even farmers became more interested in what they were doing because for them some for some they think that this traditional way of producing was old-fashioned and uh was not interesting but they when they saw how the tourists are we're asking uh this tutorial for stories behind this all product what they saw and also discovered that they really kept the valuable thing for our traditions for for the country and they they they so in different perspective their businesses and i i what i want to say that agri tourism really enhanced they pushed them this preserving the heritage and national traditions for in georgia and this for example this winemaking tradition which looks maybe very strange for uh some of our um participants this is um i will explain this tradition which is kept still in in uh georgian farmers houses is that wine is fermented so farmers are using wine vessels which are made by clay and buried in the ground and for a fermentation storage and keeping aging and storage in wine they keep it for ages and and also this vine cellar we named marani is also unique with this architecture they are some of them are open here and some of them are close buildings depends on climate and environment where it's location and these traditions became georgia's intangible uh heritage uh uh recognized by unesco just few years ago and such kind of maharani and wine roots uh became that the cultural roads of georgia became a part of cultural programs of european council it's integrated in um in these roads so the big efforts from the beginning was made to find direct links between farmers and producers and farmers started to bottle and pack and put etiquettes and sell on marketing they were enthusiastic but such cases and events were mostly supported by projects of course um by international organization and ngos and recently georgian farmers association are more concerned also to develop and push or integrate uh agri-tourism activities as a supplementary and working on agri-tourism law also in georgia but but for sustainable development and for um for uh it it requires uh stakeholders commitment and trevor and catherine mentioned it before it needs more effort from different stakeholders because it needs bottom-up approach uh okay the project which were introduced by um farmers associations and supported by international donors are based on best uh lessons learned and case studies in other countries but it's it was like transfer of knowledge instead of co-creation of process with with different stakeholders especially regional organizations and especially now when agreed tourism to go to recognize the importance of food heritage as culinary tourism and gastro tours became also integral part of the process there are many aspects and which needs interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral cooperation for this reason foul started to investigate um or support support uh the process of investigation of national food and working on uh geographical indicators and food of regional origin to enhance this popular uh heritage and the link to tourist market as a way of alternative way to get increment to popular lives both activities of farmers and products itself for example this this photo shows us preparation of uh touchetty and gudachis to shed is a place in east northeast north eastern part of georgia and a few families still preserves this tradition of good cheese making and they are really made by shepherds and kept in the sheepskin real good cheese and um it's a very delicious bit salty but [Music] really delicious cheese and got the certificate original origin so i i want to emphasize that why the agritourist today for georgia has more wide concept it's increase it is invaded or or used as a tool of revitalization of rural communities especially mountain rural communities diversification of rural economy diversification of farms and revitalization of for example cultural heritage side and but sustainable development and the it's innovations and innovation management and we know that branding and promotion of regions cannot be sustainable unless it is managed by regional or local organizations and they it needs more solid entities in original level so that is why uh now current project supported by uh foul uh is supporting uh this multi-sectoral cooperation dialogue between stakeholders and to establish the possible road map and long-term strategy and we have focus group discussions with different stakeholders we have workshops uh to identify the priority areas and uh what we want to concern the first time in the beginning which um priority direction and strategy actions should be taken in a short and long term action plan so this is a stakeholders map maybe it looks very not very clear for us but this is uh how i wanted to show what kind of state stated authorities or institutions and farmers association like alcana and georgian farmers association together with astronomy association ecotourism association and then practice practitioners at a local and regional level and the destination management organizations with communities are involved in processes and it's take time it takes time preparing the strategy but i think you will agree better to spend more time to have a common vision and common clear leading structure or guidance uh for for uh other uh activities in futures um so uh the current uh concept of agri-tourism includes uh promotion of um traditional life and landscapes and uh resilience agricultural production system and we are more concerned or value change development and um gastronomy and etc so this is a vision what we elaborated with our um stakeholders with our actors this was very briefly about the story of aggregators in georgia and i will be more than happy to hear some questions and answer them thank you very much i will stop sharing now [Music] thank you laila that was wonderful all three presentations are so the imagery is so striking and it makes me want to travel immediately i happen to love georgian wine also so i'm sure i'm not i'm sure i'm in good company uh good company there so thank you um i i maybe we don't have too much time for questions uh maybe um let me just uh see here uh and encourage our panelists to look at the q and a for direct questions that they can can answer um i think lisa we're pretty much out of time right uh what do you do we have time for one question or how about one yeah one question and everyone can kind of chime in quickly and then we'll close and respect everybody's time so we'll do a quick quick fire round i'll ask a question that each of the panelists can answer what is the biggest challenge in your region to coordinated agritourism efforts you all spoke to this multi-sector stakeholder collaboration so just a one minute or even 30 second answer from each of you so going backwards starting with leila uh big challenge uh i i think from the beginning is uh i i can say it's challenge but this is just take time to to discuss and agree among stakeholders because it's so far for georgia maybe for other countries is different but first for now we tourism is in transition process in georgia we just are in process to delegate uh the tourism like uh and recently appeared with the destination management organization we have just in certain regions so this uh formation of new structure also uh the this stark dialogue between uh these different stakeholders is be challenged because it's go it goes uh at the same time uh in parallel uh and maybe for georgia it's um and also at least a pandemic situation we have online sessions only and it's it's also no it's a bit uh problematic but i i don't think and the projects were developed fragmentally and now for example elkanah developed standards gestalt standards and the criterias of classification criteria so for agritourism farms now other organizations also started the activities and it it takes time to not to make not to um mislead our travelers and our guests in different like approaches but to agree in one common and take a lead as a leadership here together this is important for us not to split this aggregatory market because can you image because i saw in some countries some agritourist farm has different standards in other region is different so it's for for tourists but they are confused what is going in here and when this um this topic is supported by international different international donors here we need in georgia's strong like um coordination system to to communi for to communicate efficiently thank you i'm going to stop you there and could do quickly trevor shiva your what's uh what's top challenges or solutions i'll uh i'll only take 30 seconds in a second i think in canada where we've got a lot of rural and remote destinations looking at egotism as an opportunity i think supporting them and cultivating pride in their place and and really fostering that pride uh because i think we're oftentimes talking about non-traditional destinations or those that may be emerging and really looking at agricultural producers who may not typically be associated with tourism or are just getting into tourism really recognizing that value that they have a lot of it's intangible a lot of it's through their abilities to tell their stories the stories of their their heritage their family their traditions their processes so really kind of overcoming that challenge and supporting people looking in the mirror and saying hey i'm really amazing and people want to visit my place thank you shiva okay as a quick answer i just can say the education is the key for um iranian agritourism because our farmers don't know that what agritourism is so they should be educated about that and then um we will have a lot of progress in this area in my country thank you well this is very thought provoking and eye-opening uh hour to spend with you all and thank you very much lisa i turn it to you to close thank you so much catherine shiva trevor and layla and thanks to everyone else who joined us we had about 200 people here with us today and so many great questions and conversation going on in the chat i wish we had more time but we do want to we know people are rushing off to other things so i'm sorry that we didn't get to all of the questions today but we will send out an email afterwards with resources and contact info for our panelists as well as a link to the recording and um if our panelists agree we'll share slides and even transcripts so we can make all this information easily available to you and to others who might want to check it out we definitely want to keep this conversation going on this topic and also on other aspects of agritourism we mentioned that we're taking a break for the summer somewhere in this part of the world for the next couple months however we're already planning for the fall and in the meantime our colleagues from other parts of the world have stuff going on in fact this weekend may 15th and 16th agritourism india has planned an amazing program to celebrate world agri-tourism day if you're interested you can visit their website the link is here world www.worldagritourismday.com and becky will put the link into chat registration is free and katherine and i and i saw quite a few others of you out there as participants who are also going to be participating in the program so hope we'll see many of you this weekend online and then we're you know we're thinking of other things to do trying to make this um more more engaging and also really foster the the connections and the networks so um this summer we're going to be sending out a survey um to all of you asking what's been working for you with this series how could it be improved suggestions you have for topics and speakers for the future and even different formats i know many of you have already reached out to me by email and i really uh value these um direct personal connections we want to hear from you again through the survey and we want to hear from everyone else so please stay in touch stay healthy hopefully we'll see many of you this weekend and perhaps we'll see many of you through other events over the summer and then definitely again in the fall thank you so much

2021-05-18 03:09

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