I was approached by Amanda Cropp, Business Bureau Chief of www.stuff.co.nz to provide her with interesting people to talk to for an article about agritourism. 
Click here to read the article. 

The Future of Agritourism Symposium was held in Kaikoura, NZ on the 9th and 10th of June 2021. 
The aim was to bring together innovators and leaders to discuss and learn about the opportunities of agritourism. I was honoured to be invited to speak about future agritourism trends and to introduce the Agritourism NZ Network.

The symposium was led by Lincoln University Senior Lecturer in Tourism Management Jo Fountain and Quality Tourism Managing Director Craig Wilson and marks the culmination of the Beef+Lamb Post Quake Farming project’s agritourism stream, which funded the event.

The day was filled with inspirational speakers ranging from keynote speaker Dan Steel from Blue Duck Station to a range of local agritourism innovators, Regional Tourism Organisations. There were three panel discussions; local innovations, latest learnings and looking forward.

Craig Wilson launched the 'Agritourism in NZ' guide, which will be linked to the resources page on this website.

I spoke to several people at the end of the day and they all agreed they felt motivated and inspired at the end of the day.

The day was concluded with a lovely dinner - great for networking! The following day there were several field tours to chose from.
All in all a great success and a credit to the organisers and everyone involved!

PRIZE WINNER
The winners of a night at the beautiful Cascade Creek Retreat near Milton (Otago) are Rose & Will Parsons from Driftwood Eco Tours. Congrats!

Last week, I attended my 18th TRENZ. A TRENZ like no other due to the absence of the international buyers. It was more like a conference than a tradeshow, and it was fantastic catching up with many of the 700+ tourism operators and other industry members. 
The focus was on what the future of tourism will look like. Several interactive workshops were held where ideas were shared. Sadly, 4 out of 10 jobs in tourism have been lost in the past year.
No one really knows what the future will bring once borders re-open, but the industry appears positive. I am too... After all, people will ALWAYS travel!
Hon. Stuart Nash, Minister of Tourism, announced another $200 million to support the industry and a new TRENZ online platform will be launched mid 2021.
For the presentations, slides and press releases, go to: www.trenz.co.nz/trenz-hui-2021

In March this year, I had the privilege of speaking at the Future Whenua Summit in Southland.
​The inaugural Future Whenua Summit, an innovative 3-day educational event organised by Zeb Horrell, was held on the banks of the Mataura river on Zeb’s family sheep farm, The Montana Flat in Southland.
The theme of the weekend was Future Whenua with talks about the practices that could (and perhaps should) shape our landscapes in a vibrant future with significant economic opportunities to be seized. It was a of gathering rural leaders as well as those on the cutting edge.
I spoke about the opportunities for farmers to diversify into agritourism with some case studies of successful agritourism entrepreneurs. 
To learn more about this event, go to: https://futurewhenua.co.nz/

Three of our Advisory Board members were involved in a panel discussion about Agritourism. Thanks to Go With Tourism for the opportunity to discuss Agritourism in New Zealand!