{"id":619194,"date":"2026-04-21T16:47:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/619194\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T16:47:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:47:22","slug":"they-want-to-understand-agritourism-growing-across-alberta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/619194\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018They want to understand\u2019: Agritourism growing across Alberta"},"content":{"rendered":"

Farming has deep roots in Alberta. From potatoes to corn, wheat to carrots, it\u2019s a massive industry powering the province.<\/p>\n

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But over the years, a lot of people have migrated away from the fields into large urban centres.<\/p>\n

This decades-coming separation has berthed a rising industry \u2014 agritourism.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are really hungry to find something authentic and basically leave the city and learn about farming,\u201d said Arden Delidais, co-owner of DNA Gardens in Elnora, Alta., near Red Deer.<\/p>\n

She has been farming for decades, but she and her husband chose to open their farm to visitors wanting to learn more about the land.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarmers take a lot for granted and we need to share that information back to the urban people.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The small, locally owned farm recently held a town hall event to help other farmers enter the agritourism industry, because it\u2019s a booming operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe estimate there are between 3,000 and 5,000 farms across Alberta that are currently offering some sort of agritourism activity,\u201d said Tam Andersen, president of Agritourism Alberta.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExplore Alberta: Local food dinners at Prairie Gardens in Bon Accord\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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Andersen also operated Prairie Gardens in Bon Accord, north of Edmonton, and she\u2019s already experiencing the same demand as Delidais.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have people inquiring already for our Fairy Berry Festival, which is not until August. (People are also) looking for our pumpkin tickets, which are not until October,\u201d said Andersen.<\/p>\n

This all comes as Alberta is fresh off a record-breaking 2025, where visitors spent more than $15 billion in the province.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur travellers are also becoming more savvy. They want to know where their food comes from \u2014 they want to understand that process,\u201d said Erin Crane, CEO of Tourism Lethbridge.<\/p>\n

The growth of the agritourism industry has been so substantial, the Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Association recently rebranded into the aforementioned Agritourism Alberta.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Association is an association in its 40th season and we\u2019re just reflecting consumer demand and what our members are actually offering to the public. It was an easy segue for us to rebrand,\u201d said Andersen.<\/p>\n

While thousands of farms are directly benefiting, other industries are also feeling the positive knock-on effects.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always so interesting to see what the ripple effect is. When you start with primary agriculture and you add value to that \u2014 proposition, so you\u2019re making jams and pies, perhaps you\u2019re having on-farm dinners, then you add tourism on top, now we have farmers participating in the visitor economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOpen Farm Days takes you behind the scenes of an Alberta farm\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not lost on tourism experts, like Crane, who says ongoing efforts are helping bridge the gap between industries in a new way.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s one of the big stories we\u2019ve been telling through an initiative called Savour Alberta South, is that connection between producers, between restaurants, between processors. It\u2019s a unique dynamic,\u201d said Crane.<\/p>\n

During National Tourism Week, Crane says it\u2019s a great time to highlight all these efforts, and more, being done to contribute to the multi-billion-dollar boom that is tourism.<\/p>\n

However, with some places like Lethbridge seeing increased traffic but flat sales last year, she says the work isn\u2019t done.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe agri-food tourism, Indigenous tourism, all of these things are attractive to travellers. They\u2019re coming in \u2014 we just need to align the visitor economy to really figure out how we get (tourists) to stay longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, each and every tourist who enters the province can make a big difference for those involved in the industry and for the new Agritourism Alberta, the future is certainly looking bright.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thrive as a small, local farm on people coming and supporting us directly,\u201d said Andersen.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Farming has deep roots in Alberta. From potatoes to corn, wheat to carrots, it\u2019s a massive industry powering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[226045,205719,49,48,1849,46,295,13962,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-619194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-agritourism","9":"tag-alberta-tourism","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-consumer","13":"tag-economy","14":"tag-environment","15":"tag-farming","16":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}