About Agritourism New Zealand

​Having worked with farmers for 26 years in developing and marketing agritourism experiences, Agritourism NZ was set up by Marijke Dunselman to create awareness (and advocacy) of the opportunities in agritourism, to help farmers build capability through education and training, network, and assist in marketing their products within New Zealand and internationally.  ​

Agritourism NZ's focus areas

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Advocacy & research
  • Agritourism NZ works with individual regions in New Zealand on research projects to understand and further develop agritourism in these regions.
  • We also work with related organisations to promote agritourism. This includes the recent development of an Agritourism category within Qualmark.
  • Focus on sustainability through the NZ Tourism Sustainability Commitment.
  • Speaking at conferences (min of 3 this year). The next one is the Food Hui 2021 in Christchurch, where Marijke has been invited to speak on’ regenerative agritourism’.
  • Media interviews to increase awareness of agritourism in New Zealand.
  • Liaise with and learn from international agritourism organisations.
  • Ongoing research internationally.
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Education
  • The Agritourism Success Programme is a 6-month in-depth course for farmers who want to develop or grow their agritourism business. It covers every aspect of starting an agritourism business with a focus on marketing. This programme started in 2019 and five courses have been run so far. Several start dates are planned for the second half of 2021.
  • Webinars and workshops ‘Opportunities in Agritourism’ are currently being run in Canterbury and on the West Coast
  • The Agritourism NZ Conference is planned for 2022 (subject to funding and Covid situation).
  • Capability-building through ongoing topical webinars for members.
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Networking
  • A membership structure has been set up with quality criteria for businesses wanting to be part of it.
  • Several network meetings for members have been held. Covid has held this up a bit, but in the future the membership of the Agritourism network will include network meetings twice a year with the aim to work together.
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Marketing
  • Member listings on the www.agritourism.nz website.
  • Monthly newsletters.
  • Benefits such as discount on online booking systems.
  • Assisting members in distributing their agritourism products to inbound operators and wholesalers world-wide.
For more information on Agritourism NZ, visit www.agritourism.nz