Last night, I returned to New Zealand from attending and speaking at the Global Agritourism Conference 2026 in Aberdeen, Scotland. This amazing conference brought together a diverse international agritourism community, with more than 550 delegates from 50 countries, including a strong delegation from Australia/NZ. 

The conference highlighted the growing importance of agritourism as a way to strengthen family farms, support rural communities, create new income streams and connect visitors more deeply with farming, food and place. 

Agritourism is no longer niche, it’s a powerful trend globally. 

It took place over three days, including one inspirational warm (28 degrees!) day of visiting agritourism businesses in the region.

Caroline Millar and the team at Scottish Agritourism did an incredible job in putting this conference together. A big thank you and credit to you all!

It was so nice to finally meet in person many great agritourism professionals and leaders (Lisa Chase, Carla Barbieri, Chadley Hollas, Scottie Jones, and many more) whom I have been working with through the Global Agritourism Network Steering Committee and Education Committee, specifically. The countless volunteer hours of all those involved in building this global network has resulted in an organisation that is set to go from strength to strength in the next few years supporting farmers and other stakeholders to grow agritourism globally.

Thanks to my Tasmanian colleague Allison Clark with whom I presented a talk about Education & Collaboration. A thriving global agritourism sector will be built together. Let’s make agritourism easier to start, easier to grow and easier to support. Keep farmers at the center, build practical education pathways, create networks where operators learn from each other and collaborate across agriculture, tourism and government.

I also thoroughly enjoyed connecting with with the around 25 strong delegation of the GAN Australia/NZ Regional Network who attended the conference. What a great representation from down under! 

After three years in the role, it was time for me to pass on the Chair position of the GAN Education Committee to two new Co-Chairs: Tzu-Wei Fang and Christopher Barsotti MD MA. Wishing you both all the best and I look forward to keep being involved.

And last but not least, along with fellow judges, it was a festive occasion to present the World Agritourism Awards to this year's winners. Thank you Pandurang Taware and REVATI ABHIJEET MURKUTE for organising these awards and a big congratulations to all the winners.