Key role for Scotland in new global agritourism organisation

The Global Agritourism Network (GAN) formally brings together representatives across many tens of countries, who have been working together since the first global agritourism conference took place in Bolzano, Italy, five years ago.

The new organisation will bring together global agritourism experts including farmers, suppliers, researchers, government agencies, tour operators, hospitality operators and others, to share data, information and national policy impacts.

The aim is to learn and share experiences internationally to promote the benefits of agritourism at a global level.

Well-known agritourism sector expert, Caroline Millar, has been appointed as Global Agritourism Lead for Western Europe and will head up a committee looking at how future world conferences will be structured and delivered for the GAN.

Ms Millar pointed to the progress made in Scotland to promote agritourism in Scotland, including the national agritourism strategy introduced 18-months ago and the implementation board that is co-chaired by Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon.

She said: “Scotland is right at the heart of the global agritourism community, which is fantastic. We are working with agritourism experts from many continents and as we roll out a national strategy for agritourism in Scotland and grow our own sector, an outward facing international focus will deliver benefits for us at home.

“Many countries have a much larger economic impact from agritourism than Scotland, and so it will be great to learn from them, the specific drivers and policies which helped deliver that scale of sector.”

Ms Millar said there is already a very proactive international network of countries that are already well-established in agritourism. “The first global agritourism conference took place in Italy in 2018 and attracted around 350 industry leaders from different countries and this network has grown from that.

“Momentum has built since then and this organisation has been set up with formal governance and constitution. The premise behind this is that countries such as Scotland could benefit hugely from data that shows what is working well elsewhere.

If another country that implements a policy that benefits agritourism or has a capital grant programme, tax breaks or planning consents to farmers and they evaluate the impact of that and it is evaluated and found to be positive, then if that is shared with others, then we don’t have to reinvent the wheel, we can copy what are other countries are doing.

“It’s knowledge sharing on an international level and sharing data on economic growth. We know that other countries are very good at measuring the numbers of farmers in agritourism and what the impact is.

If we have more people tracking data uniformly and sharing the results, we will have an overall picture of what agritourism is worth, not only in separate countries, but also in Western Europe and globally.

From a Scottish perspective, Ms Millar said she is most interested in what policy decisions other governments have taken that have had a major impact.

She said: “Some countries have implemented a 5% VAT rate on agritourism businesses that are enshrined in law, while other countries have tax breaks for farms involved in agritourism because they are promoting and selling food direct to consumers, so whether or not this might happen in the UK, then at least we will have the data to discuss with policy makers and officials about it.

“We want to move to a point eventually where Scotland is known for agritourism and people come to Scotland for a great food an drink experience on a farm.

“Ultimately, what we want is for people to come to Scotland, stay on a farm, eat Scottish produce, have a farm tour and buy food from a farm shop.

“I think what we need to do now is over the next two years that we have the co-ordination role at a Western Europe level, that we drive that forward and get the most benefit from the bigger picture and for Scotland as a whole.”