Agricultural Tourism

Unique Niches - Agritourism in Britain and New England

Section 3: Farm Holidays in Britain continued

Centralized Farm Accommodation Organization

The Farm Holiday Bureau (FHB, 1996) was jointly formed in the 1970s by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Farmers Weekly, and the English Tourist Board to help farmers offset farm losses by developing farm accommodations. It is now a private membership organization with 95 different Farm Holiday Groups (FHG) totaling 1,000 farms in England, Scotland and Wales. Their attractive booklet, also published in French, German, Italian, and Spanish, provides basic information and a line drawing of each farm, how to reach the farm, general price range and tourist board rating. The FHB also has a web page you can visit to make reservations directly.

The FHB has evolved as a result of the need for centralized marketing and training coordination for the growing number of farm B&Bs that are members. They exist as a non-profit association whose sole objective is to promote overnight stays on the farms within their defined area and membership. They have an annual business meeting and several meetings throughout the year to learn about the other members' farm accommodations and to discuss marketing and promotion.

Each group selects officers, levies their own marketing fees for additional promotion, and organizes an accommodation referral service so that no tourist is turned away. Each year an accommodation secretary is selected from the group whose job is to keep up to date referral information available. The group's goal is to accommodate all of the people that call. If one farm is full, they can refer the caller to another farm.

While all groups belong to the FHB, each group has developed their own unique characteristics and standards that fit their areas. According to Joan Best, a member of a group in Wales "our group had determined that only working farms could be included in our group since so many country homes were attempting to use the word farm when they were no longer farming or in most cases, never had." They defined working" as the land being actively farmed with a certain percentage of income derived directly from farming. The Exmoor FHB group was not so strict about this definition and interpreted it more loosely.

Photo: Camping barn situated in Lake District National Park. (Photo by Ellen Rilla.)

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Thursday August 28 2008