Australian Regional Tourism has secured $120,000 in funding to support a national agritourism development program for all of regional Australia.
The funding is being delivered via a successful grant application to the Building Better Regions Funding Round Five.
This funding supports new or expanded local events, strategic regional plans or leadership and capability strengthening activities.
"Agritourism is a key growth market with development of the sector a national regional tourism priority. We are thrilled to have been successful in receiving this funding, enabling us to now take the next steps in progressing the agritourism project" said Coralie Bell, Chair at Australian Regional Tourism.
Agritourism experiences provide visitors another reason to visit regional towns, stay longer and spend more, ART says.
"We are hearing many stories from farmers reporting that offering tourism experiences and opening new income streams has been a life saver in tough times, such as the prolonged drought, while also creating new opportunities for non-farming family members" said Bell.
The agritourism sector is worth approximately $16 billion.
In 2019, pre-Covid, there were over 800,000 visits to farms from the international market alone.
In 2018, ART released its discussion paper ‘Boosting regional Australia through the development of
The application to BBRF received support from Tourism Australia, all State Tourism Offices, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Airbnb and the agricultural sector.
