Rob:  Well of the billions of tourism dollars pumped into the state, a growing percentage is from agritourism.  Ranging from the elaborate to the quaint, agritourism has lots of room to grow and plenty of places to do it, and none better than right here in Oklahoma.  Our Alisa Hines sat down with agritourism expert Jane Eckert to find out how it’s done.
Alisa:  We hear a lot about agritourism here in Oklahoma.  It’s really taking off.  Why is that?
Jane Eckert:  Agritourism is growing for many reasons; a couple that are key though is that, we have most people live now in an urban setting, and they want to come to the country.  They want to experience perhaps what their grandparents or great grandparents did when they worked on a farm or ran a ranch.  So, they’re coming for a new experience, and we have plenty.
Alisa:  Talk to me about the importance of an internet presence and how important marketing is to an agritourism destination.
Eckert:  I believe having a web site is absolutely one-hundred percent the most important thing a farm or ranch could do, because that puts them on the playing field, literally at the world.  And people can access them at any time, 24/7, and that it needs to be a professionally designed web site as well.  That’s really important to be out there, and then it can be linked to your various state and regional tourism organizations as well.  So a web site, number one priority.
Alisa:  Okay, what about marketing?
Eckert:  Marketing as well is very important.  The people in this state have a great benefit in that you have a number of people willing to help out.  From the Department of Agriculture, you have several agritourism dedicated leaders.  Your tourism leaders that are at this conference are willing to help the farmers.  And marketing is very important; it’s usually not a skill that most farmers are comfortable with, at least at first.
Alisa:  Say I own a farm, and it’s not very fancy, but I want to get into the agritourism business, what do I need to do?
Eckert:  If you really, clearly, don’t have any idea of what you want to do, I would contact the resources within your state to come out and help you evaluate your property.  Because agritourism can be based on what you grow, but it could be based as well on the assets that you have in your property including your building, your natural habitat, your game, etcetera.  So, first we do have to come with what is the plan, and you have plenty of resources here in Oklahoma to help you.  
Alisa:  So how do I get the visitors there?
Eckert:  The visitors will come if you have a good property and offer unique experience.  Once again, you have the benefit of the state of Oklahoma that’s really behind this effort producing guides, maps, brochures, and a specific web site to have people help find and bring people to your property, but you must be connected.  Most farmers are not making the effort, sometimes, to get connected with this wonderful state network.
Alisa:  What are the risks involved?
Eckert:  The risks in agritourism, there can be some liability, and that many times wants to stop people from entering it, but when I say liability, there’s insurance to cover those potential risks that might come out.  Mainly the risk is that we don’t view our farms as a hazard where as there could be equipment or things laying around that the person could trip on or fall over or get into that maybe they shouldn’t.  So we have to evaluate our farm properties in a new way, particularly the areas where we’d have guests, so that we minimize the risks and hopefully get rid of anything that could potentially be harmful to them.
Alisa:  Since agritourism is getting so popular now, what if there are other agritourism destinations in my area?  Is that going to hurt my business, or is that going to help my business?
Eckert:  It will definitely help.  The more agritourism enterprises in a given area, we call it agri-clustering now.  That we’ve created a cluster of opportunities for people to come and visit, and it gives the traveler a reason to stay longer, fill the beds, which tourism people want to do, and give people more of an experience.  So many regions around this country are developing agritourism clusters and agritourism trails to get people to stay longer.
Alisa:  Now you talked about, in your presentation, “coopitition.”  Talk to me a little bit about that.
Eckert:  The farming industry has really not been one that used to want to cooperate with their neighbors.  Matter of fact, we’re pretty secretive, you know as far as what we’re planting and what new seeds or animals.  But now with agritourism, we have to cooperate with our neighbors, because we realize as we expand the tourism base of what the offerings are in the area, people will stay longer and visit more of us; being friends with our competitors and cooperating with them is really very important to our success.
Rob:  And congratulations to our Alisa Hines who was honored at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism with the prestigious Redbud Award for her coverage of Guthrie’s preparation for our state’s centennial.  Now if you’d like to see her award winning story, just head to our website at OkHorizon.com and click on value added.