Growing Agritourism: A Toolkit for Planning and Developing Your Agritourism Business in Simcoe County

Client: Tourism Simcoe County

Agritourism is a budding industry in Simcoe with massive growth potential. To help unlock that potential, Simcoe County recognized that prospective operators might need guidance to help navigate through the process of starting an agritourism component on the farm.

In partnership with TCI Management Consultants, our team at Wilton Consulting Group developed a toolkit for farmers who would like to start or expand their agritourism operation in Simcoe County. The Toolkit contains all of the information farmers need to help decide whether agritourism is right for them. It outlines all of the necessary steps to consider when adding an agritourism component to the farm, or grow an existing agritourism business. The Toolkit is divided into four components based on a standard business development planning approach:

1. Prepare

2. Plan

3. Launch

4. Evaluate

Each section includes helpful information, printable worksheets, best practices, and links to useful agritourism resources.

— Our Multi-Faceted Approach —

The team used several research methods to develop a toolkit that contains information specific to Simcoe County and incorporates good practices from elsewhere. Stakeholder interviews, virtually facilitated working group consultations, a survey, and review of good practices all informed the toolkit. The result is an informative and user-friendly toolkit that guides the reader through many aspects of developing an agritourism operation, including:

• Business planning

• Legal and liability considerations

• Land Use Planning and Policy

• Planning for visitors

• Planning for a workforce

• Marketing and Social Media

• Customer Relations, and

• Troubleshooting issues and strategies for mitigation.

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