Life on the land may not be glamorous, but it’s the ideal escape for an emerging tourism market that’s bringing new life and energy to regional communities.

Local farmers and land owners are invited to learn more about opportunities to diversify their businesses at Food and Wine Agritourism Field Days to be held throughout the New England Region during October and November.

The field days will introduce a local Agritourism Business Development Program, initiated by Inland NSW Tourism and facilitated by Knowledge Transfer Services. Comprising a series of six full-day workshops, the program is designed to facilitate the establishment of new food and wine agritourism experiences.

The project received $50,000 in funds through the Destination NSW 2011/12 Regional Tourism Product Development Funding Program, which aims to create, grow and enhance tourism products available across regional NSW to help attract more visitors.

Mr Graham Perry, Chief Executive Officer of Inland NSW Tourism, said the depth of this program would provide impacts at the local level.

“This project will develop food and wine experiences in the region, and importantly, will contribute to Destination NSW and Inland’s goal of doubling overnight visitor expenditure by 2020,” Mr Perry said.

“Tourism plays an important role throughout the region, with visitors contributing significantly to the economy,” he said.

Regional development expert and managing director of Knowledge Transfer Services, Rose Wright, said agritourism was an opportunity to diversify an existing agribusiness and has the potential to provide an alternative or additional income stream and a succession plan to keep family members on the land.

“Domestic and international visitors want authentic, regional experiences based on our rural way of life, food, wine and landscape, which we often take for granted,” Mrs Wright said. 

“Those of us fortunate enough to live in regional NSW know how beautiful our part of the world is with its endless starry skies, wonderful natural and rural environments and fantastic, food and wine, but for many people these are little-known luxuries that they only get to experience when on holiday,” she said.