This website serves Farmers and Ranchers in the Kansas AgriTourism Industry.
For family outings, go to http://www.travelks.com

Welcome to Kansas AgriTourism!

This website has been developed specifically for Kansas farmers and ranchers involved in AgriTourism, rural properties where the traveler has an opportunity to experience farm and country life far from the hustle of the city.
The site is a project of the Kansas Agritourism Advisory Council, working in cooperation with:
the Kansas Agriculture Marketing Division and the Travel and Tourism Division of the Department of Commerce
and with financial assistance from Frontier Farm Credit.
We invite you to explore this website to find a variety of articles and resources that will help you succeed in agritourism.
If you have any questions, please contact the Department of Commerce, Travel and Tourism Division, and ask for the Agritourism Liaison.
The Kansas AgriTourism
Advisory Council
 
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Kansas AgriTourism News

November 2006
Greetings!

Wow! What a whirlwind this October turned out to be for us!

I want to share with you all that this year, we finally decided to contract an advertising agency for our pumpkin patch, and I thought you'd like hear how it came out.

In the past, we have always tried to "get by" on our marketing with press releases that didn't get into the papers and small ads that had no “Wow! ” factor. Like most farms, we found advertising was expensive, and we had chemical bills, seed bills, salaries, insurance and taxes to pay as priority. We also didn't know how to find a good ad agency that would have our best interests at heart and help us make money.

Well, this year, we tried it. We had a new website designed for us, and we “took the plunge” and contracted a local agency to design and coordinate our marketing. We’ve proved to ourselves that good marketing pays off—we increased our new customers by 20% and our "bottom line" by 20% as well.

The agency used their resources to put us on TV, made bigger and better print ads, got us in magazines, and developed 2 new brochures and got them distributed at no charge. I'll pay for their services again in 2007 with profits from 2006!

Over 4000 people looked at our new website, and more than a thousand of them were willing to exchange their email address for a discount coupon. We'll use this list of addresses to keep in touch, and hopefully bring them back next year!

Feel free to call or email if you’d like more information. I can’t guarantee the same results for everyone, and there is a lot of difference between agencies, I’m sure.

I also want to encourage you to consider the great opportunity afforded by the Kansas AgriTourism Scholarship program. Last year, 13 farms won scholarships to attend marketing conferences or to take an educational trip touring other agritourism farms. Our farm was one of them, and we really learned a lot by attending the North American Farmers Direct Marketing Conference (NAFDMA).

You can read more about the scholarship in the article below, and then follow the links to the application. All applications are due November 15, so don’t delay! This newsletter is all about sharing success stories, and as chair of the Kansas Agritourism Council, I wanted to take a moment to share our story with you. If you have other stories you’d like to share, or like to hear, please let us know!

Becky Walters, Chair
Kansas AgriTourism Advisory Council

In This Month's Issue:

Hunters Are Going To the Poore Farm!

Kansas Agritourism Scholarship Deadline is November 15

 
This Month's Featured Destination:

Hunters Are Going to the Poore Farm!

First, you gather together a favorite shotgun or two; the right flannel shirts, plus a vest, pants, and jacket; some good boots, of course; a pair of long-johns; a well-trained dog; a box or two of shells; and then you hop in the truck to pick up several of your best friends. You are on your way to the Poore Farm!

As you can guess, this catchy name helps attract business, and hunting guests at the Woodston, Kansas farm of Larry and BJ Poore always make sure they get a photo standing by the Poore Farm sign. The farm was established in 1905 by R.D. Poore, and is today the home of Larry and BJ. Larry’s parents, Alvin and Venda Poore, once worked the farm, and now live in town.

While they grow wheat, milo, and forage sorghum on the farm, three years ago Larry and BJ decided to begin making the land available for hunters. They were already raising and selling high quality registered Labradors with a proven hunting instinct.

“We went to Great Bend, where the Department of Commerce hosted a conference on agritourism,” said BJ. “I came home and said to Larry, ‘We can sell what people want! Darkness!’

They can’t get darkness in the city,” she went on. “The sky in the city is always light, and they can’t even see the stars. We’ve got lots of that!”

Click to read More About the Poore Farm

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Kansas Scholarship Deadline is Nov. 15!

The Kansas Department of Commerce is sponsoring a $25,000 scholarship program to help Kansas agritourism operators attend conferences, seminars and educational tours, gain first-hand information regarding practices and techniques used by other agritourism vendors and develop nationwide relationships within the industry.

Commerce will award two types of scholarships:

Conference Attendance Scholarships will reimburse awardees up to $5,000 per application for all costs related to educational tours, workshops, seminars, registration and one year’s annual organizational dues related to attendance at an approved agritourism, tourism or agricultural direct marketing conference.

Best-Practices Educational Trip Scholarships will reimburse awardees up to $2,000 per application for costs associated with guided, organized trips to agritourism, tourism or value-added businesses regionally or nationally. Collaborative proposals involving multiple regional or market group partners will receive priority designation.

All farms must be registered with the Kansas Department of Commerce as a certified agritourism operation as provided by the Agritourism Promotion Act, K.S.A. 74-50,165 et seq. This free registration also provides tax credits, and helps you reduce your business liability.

To read more about the scholarships, and to download an Application form, click here.

To learn more about the benefits of registering your agritourism enterprise with the department of Commerce, click here.

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