What is Agritourism we hear you say? Well, it’s Tourism, but not as we know it, and quite simply it’s a way of attracting more visitors to an area or town by focusing on and developing a series of new eco-friendly projects, such as Gardens, Farms & Botanical plantations.
Mainly through the effects of Covid-19, but also as a result of more people starting to look at a diverse range of options rather than just the Sea and the Sunshine, tourism projects in Nature, Agriculture, Gastronomy and Sports have grown rapidly since the start of the pandemic.
One of the main cities to already be working on this new form of Tourism is Bodrum, and they have highlighted their ancient wheat seeds, medicinal and aromatic plants, cologne production and 3000 year old olive production as areas which, with further development, can take advantage of an increase in visitor numbers.
Bodrum itself already welcomes around 1.5m visitors annually, but, as rightly put by Ahmet Aras who is the Head of the Bodrum Promotion Foundation, ‘It’s not just Sea, Sand and Sun and with the work we are doing Tourists can stay in these new facilities and spend time in Botanic Gardens and Agricultural fields’. He went on to add that the City aims to host another 1million a year as a result of these projects, adding a further $1bn in additional revenue.
To help businesses & producers attract more visitors and carry out any necessary work they will be supported by the region with grants, free agricultural lands and consultancy.
Serkan Ceylan who is the General Secretary of the Bodrum Promotion Foundation clearly sees Bodrum as the foundation for these projects, and he highlighted that Agriculture has always played an important role in the growth of the City, so now was a perfect time to take advantage. He commented ‘By diversifying types of tourism Bodrum’s tourism income can increase by 40-50% within the next 10-15 years, and we have very important goals in terms of production, promotion and added-value products’.
