They’ve never thought about it from the visitor’s perspective,” says Wolfville, N.S. sustainable tourism operator, Celes Davar, who helps launch new experiential on-farm businesses across the country. “But when I turn it around and say, ‘If you were going to Costa Rica tomorrow, would you want to meet someone who grows the cacao bean?’ Well, it’s the same for people visiting here.”
But it doesn’t just happen. It takes the right mix, including the right farmer.
In fact, the entire package has to be different than most of us might think, and it has certainly evolved from a few years ago.
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At the heart of it is the storyteller, says Davar. “They have to be passionate. They have to care about the community and the planet. And they have to be willing to share that with the people who are coming as visitors.”
People are seeking tourism that doesn’t exploit the local people and resources, Davar says. “They are looking for experiences that respect the place where the storyteller lives.”
By way of example, Davar describes the immersive experience that a chef in the Annapolis Valley has created. The chef invites visitors to the farm to see how the food is grown and they sit down together in the greenhouse to share the food. The farm becomes the stage and the visitors develop relationships with the chef, the farmer and locally grown food.
Experiential tourism is a shift away from the transactional nature of tourism to one built on relationships, Davar stresses. “We welcome people to our place to take part in the things that are important to us, but along with that welcome comes the potential to be transformed and, in being transformed, to become advocates for our place.”
For the past seven years, Davar has been helping food producers and other small businesses craft unique visitor experiences through the Southwest Ontario Tourism Corporation (SWOTC — provincially mandated regional tourism organization). Meredith Maywood, tourism specialist with Oxford County (one of the SWOTC member counties) and a champion of local experiential tourism, says it’s about “celebrating what’s here, the environment, the people who live here and what they do, the stories and the passion.”
This kind of tourism can open up new markets, better utilize existing infrastructure, enhance slow season business and produce an additional revenue stream for farms, Maywood says.
In the Unlocked & Inspired workshops offered through SWOTC, Davar helps a small number of entrepreneurs develop meaningful experiences for guests so they connect with their best customers and stand apart from the competition. These experiences are very different from workshops, tours or other events.
“The experiences we coach are about visitor transformation through experiential activities, storytelling and first-hand learning. Fundamentally, all experiences must be based on a strong foundation of regenerative tourism, sustainability, low carbon and zero waste.”
Sophie Foster, owner of Rising Roots Farm near Embro, Ont., says the Unlocked & Inspired workshop was a game changer: “It was the key I didn’t know I needed.”
Foster is a recent entry into farming. Feeling discouraged with the world’s problems, she spent time working on a farm in Australia after finishing university. It was during this time that she realized eco-friendly farming would allow her to combine “hands-on, action-oriented solutions” with the food policy work she does. She now operates a small farm where she offers on-farm educational experiences in addition to growing vegetables and flowers.
Foster says the SWOTC workshop helped her to realize the value inside her story of “not having any hope and then finding hope … what that looks like … and how that relates to food and farming.” And it helped her to find a way to share that story, she adds.
Cheryl Haskett of Udderly Ridiculous Farm Life near Bright, Ont., is another of the farm business owners who benefited from the Unlocked & Inspired workshop. She and her husband Greg started making ice cream from their goat milk in 2019. In 2021, they expanded into agri-tourism with an immersive Taste of Farm Life signature experience where visitors interact with the farm animals but also learn about animal welfare, soil, food security and food systems.
Haskett says the Unlocked & Inspired workshop had a systems lens that looked at the entire experience from start to finish including sustainability, financial viability, how to be a responsible tourism operator, and how to create value. “It was a holistic, fulsome experience,” she says, crediting Davar who facilitated the workshop with being able to “pull out what you’re really thinking.”
The Hasketts have now launched a total of eight experiential activities including goat cuddles, an alpaca walk and an alpaca picnic in addition to Taste of Farm Life.
“It’s about creating moments that are memorable to people, and having a dialogue about ag and food,” says Haskett. She says the feedback has been positive from all ages, from the smallest child to people in their eighties, with many repeat customers. Their success has also been recognized with five awards.
Haskett, who worked as a corporate facilitator before becoming a goat farmer, has taken her experiential tourism expertise to the next level by taking Davar’s coaching workshop through SWOTC. She is now able to coach people through the entire process to help them achieve their goals and enhance their tourism offerings.
Building on the knowledge he gained creating the award-winning From Tree to Table: A Build-your-own Board experience, David Schonberger, owner of Ottercreek Woodworks Inc. in Tillsonburg, Ont., is another graduate of the SWOTC coaching program. He now assists other entrepreneurs to create what he thinks of as “relationship tourism.” “It’s not just a transactional encounter with guests,” he says.
Schonberger’s core business is making high-quality charcuterie boards from local wood but his build-your-own board workshops have become an important revenue stream and helped him weather the pandemic.
He believes the board-building experience has strengthened his main business. The event has been featured in many prominent magazines and the word-of-mouth buzz has brought many people to his website, leading to an increase in sales.
More than just a simple DIY workshop that teaches participants how to make their own charcuterie boards, Schonberger takes his guests on a guided walk in the forest on his rural property where they learn about the biologically unique and threatened Carolinian forest ecosystem which covers less than one per cent of Canada’s land mass.
Participants also get to try his grandfather’s vintage hand tools in addition to modern power tools.
Schonberger says the Unlocked & Inspired workshop helped him to see the value of his own story, how to tell it, and how he could create higher value for his guests by adding touch points such as gathering around the fire on arrival and offering tea made from locally foraged ingredients.
The opportunity to network with like-minded local entrepreneurs was another benefit of the experiential tourism training, and Schonberger continues to collaborate with many of those entrepreneurs, utilizing their products in the take-home feasting boxes that participants receive. “It’s everything they need for their first charcuterie feast on their new board at home.”
The ultimate goal, however, is always to weave the guests into the fabric of the story he is telling.
It’s why Schonberger tells his participants to arrive with an open mind. If they do, he promises, “they will leave with a full heart.”
Resources
Four case studies featuring entrepreneurs who have created successful experiential tourism activities presented in video format are featured on the Southwest Ontario Tourism Corporation website. In addition, two handbooks, Coaching Transformational Visitor Experiences: A Coaching Guidebook and Crafting Legendary Visitor Experiences: An Experience Partner’s Guidebook, written in collaboration with Celes Davar, will soon be available.
The United Nations Sustainable Development goals (SDGs) provide a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future and serve as a useful framework for designing experiential tourism activities.
