Agritourism

Demand for agritourism is expected to reach $18.6 billion by 2030 at around 5% per annum growth.

Experiences and tourism, or agritourism, describe experiences and attractions that bring visitors to regional and rural Australia and provides them with opportunities to experience and interact with elements across the food and agribusiness value chain. Examples include tours and cuisines at farms, wineries, breweries and farm-gates.

Agritourism will be an important growth industry for Australia’s regional and rural economy over the next decade. Domestic day-trip, domestic overnight and international visitors that experienced at least one agriculture related activity contributed around $9.4 billion in expenditure to the Australian tourism industry in 2016. CSIRO analysis estimates the annual opportunity for agri-related tourism, including accommodation, transport and retail sectors, to reach around $18.6 billion by 2030. Focusing on expenditure for food, drinks and accommodation (which most closely align with the food and agribusiness industry), the annual opportunity is expected to reach $5.6 billion by 2030, including $3.6 billion spent by international visitors (export opportunity) and $1.9 billion spent by domestic (day trip and overnight) visitors (domestic consumption opportunity).

International visitor demand is expected to drive the majority of this growth, with visitors from China, United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Japan and India expected to account for more than 60% of international expenditure by 2030. Only 4% of China’s population were estimated to own passports in 2015, but this figure is expected to reach 12% by 2025, resulting in a boom of outbound visitors. Agritourism growth in Australia however will also depend on how existing regional barriers such as labour shortages and infrastructure quality (e.g. roads, signage, blackspots etc.) are addressed. The threat of climate change, extreme weather events and natural disasters such as drought, bushfires and cyclones will also pose long term risks both to demand and supply of agritourism.

See full report for methodology and references.