Kansas AgriTourism Newsletter

January 2005

The response to the Kansas Agritourism Initiative launched last year has been extremely positive, and we are very pleased to announce the goals and activities for 2005 to move this initiative forward:

• Reinforce and expand our agritourism education programs throughout the state
• Assist local and regional tourism organizations to develop, enhance and market agritourism
• Establish and maintain fresh communications among all stakeholders in agritourism, including the creation of a new website, and the use of electronic newsletters.

The Kansas AgriTourism News

The first project for this new program is the development of the Kansas AgriTourism News, the electronic newsletter you are now reading. We hope this will prove to be a great tool in sustaining and building our AgriTourism community. Each month, we will be sending you information about workshops and meetings throughout the state, marketing tips, examples, and other bits of news and information intended to help you build your agritourism business.

Workshops and Much More!

Many of you attended or know others who attended last year’s conference in Great Bend, and had an opportunity to hear and talk with Jane Eckert, of Eckert Farms in Illinois. Jane offers us the unique combination of more than 17 years of professional marketing experience and her own first hand experience marketing her family farms, which, under her leadership, grew to receive more than 500,000 tourists each year. Jane’s company, Eckert AgriMarketing, now consults with farms, ranches, states, and conferences throughout North America, offering her systematic, step-by-step approach to successful marketing.

We’ve asked Jane to return to Kansas in 2005 to assist us in developing more ways to help sustain Kansas farms and ranches through agritourism.

Eckert AgriMarketing will be working throughout the state, meeting with tourism professionals and stakeholders to help develop area partnerships and programs with the agriculture community. Among this year’s specific projects, Jane will also conduct a full day workshop in six different locations around the state. These workshops will provide you with more tools to grow your business, improve your marketing skills, and increase the number of visitors to your AgriTourism business.

This year, right now, what is the most important thing you would like to learn in order to grow your business?

Continuing opportunities to learn and network are key to this year's initiative, and we want your feedback. We are asking you to help determine the content for the agritourism seminar. We’ve prepared a very short, online survey that will allow you to tell us what will be most useful for your business. We've listed a number of topics for your consideration, and encourage you to add your own ideas as well. To give us that information, we ask that you click the AgriTourism Survey button at the bottom of this email, and simply rate the topics provided and add any other topics you would like to have considered.

KansasAgriTourism.org

In just a matter of weeks, the Department of Commerce will launch a new website specifically for the Kansas agritourism industry, our farms and ranches, and all related stakeholders, including Kansas vendors interested in partnering with Kansas agritourism industries. The website will provide a centralized calendar for local & regional agritourism meetings or other special events; all of our monthly electronic newsletters; expanded stories, relevant articles or links on other websites; feature farms, marketing tips, and many merchandizing resources. A special feature will be the “Ask the Expert” section where site visitors may submit a question to Eckert AgriMarketing.

If you have suggestions, questions, or things to post on the KansasAgriTourism website calendar, please email Janna Dunbar, or phone her at 785-296-8132. Janna is the AgriTourism Liaison for the Kansas Department of Commerce.

We also want to gratefully acknowledge the financial support for the website provided by Frontier Farm Credit (http://www.frontierfarmcredit.com). Frontier Farm Credit also provides funding for this newsletter.

Senate Bill 334- Kansas AgriTourism Promotion Act

Finally, we want to remind everyone that Senate Bill 334 provides a Tax Credit in an amount equal to 20% of your agritourism liability insurance (not to exceed $2,000 in any tax year).

In order to qualify, there are two important requirements: First, the act requires a voluntary registration process of agritourism operations in Kansas to be kept by the Kansas Department of Commerce. Second, warning signage must be prominently posted at each agritourism location.

It is important to note that registration as an agritourism operation is voluntary and free of charge. However, the only way an operation can be protected by this act and to be eligible for tax credits is to be registered and to have signage stating the exact words specified. Please write, call or email us today to begin your registration, obtain the wording and other requirements for the signage, and to begin the tax credits for your AgriTourism operation.

AgriTourism Survey Please click this button now to complete our brief program survey. It should only take 2 or 3 minutes of your time. The results will be tabulated in our offices and this information will assist us in preparing the area workshops. Times and dates will be announced in the very near future.

Share the News! Please feel free to forward this newsletter to others who you think may be interested in learning more about Kansas agritourism, and encourage them to sign up for their own free subscription.