With a slow housing market putting the brakes on the economy in northern Santa Barbara County, economists say the area should emphasize tradable services as a long-term solution.

Tradable services can be performed from anywhere - software development, computer programming, project management and similar jobs - as opposed to, say, barbershops that serve a strictly local clientele.

But existing businesses are searching for ways to cash in on what they already have - especially some in agriculture who have seen rising costs, increasing government regulations and declining profits.

Agricultural tourism is one idea that has surfaced as a way to use existing resources to create a new, “clean” industry.

Agritourism is pitched to potential travelers and vacationers statewide by visitors bureaus and chambers of commerce, who urge their local ag businesses to capitalize on the idea.

The University of California Small Farm Center even maintains an online database of destinations to encourage and promote agritourism.

“Agritourism can lead to increased revenues for small-scale family producers,” said Kristin Reynolds, Small Farm Program representative.

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“It also offers visitors a chance to experience rural and agricultural landscapes, support farmers and ranchers directly and celebrate the diversity of California's agriculture.”

Reynolds noted agritourists can buy fresh produce as well as pick their own fruits and vegetables, visit petting zoos, tour vineyards, ride horses and even explore wildlife preserves.

For some industries, agritourism is a sound idea. Wineries, in particular, and their areas' economies have profited tremendously from the growing interest in wines.

A recent study showed San Luis Obispo County wineries, particularly in the Paso Robles area, attract 1.1 million visitors, who spend about $96.5 million annually.

Wine tourists seek the “winery experience” and buy local wines, then stay to dine out, shop and visit other attractions. Shuttle and limousine companies, hotels and wine associations have taken advantage of that interest with winery tours.

But for other industries, especially those in niche markets, the agritourism pot of gold has proven more elusive.

Local destinations

The UC Small Farm Center's online database lists hundreds of farms, ranches and wineries open to the public throughout the state.

Click on Santa Barbara County on the Web site's state map, and 13 agritourism locations pop up, from Fess Parker Winery and Vineyard and Firestone Walker Brewing Co., both in Los Olivos, to less obvious “agricultural” destinations, like La Purisima Mission State Historic Park in Lompoc.

The site also lists the Santa Maria Fairpark, where attractions are limited to festivals, fairs and other special events, and the Santa Barbara County Vintners' Association in Santa Ynez, which offers information on winery tours and events.

Other agritourist destinations are, perhaps, more obscure. In Lompoc, those include the Flying V Ranch, which raises llamas, and Return to Freedom American Wild Horse Sanctuary.

In Solvang, you'll find the Burnett Family Christmas Tree Farm - a seasonal destination - and the Alisal Guest Ranch.

In Goleta, you can visit Aquasports, which also offers camping and guide/outfitter services, and the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens, where fruits, vegetables and other grocery items are sold.

In Los Alamos, an old dairy farm called the Price Ranch offers an 1890 Victorian farmhouse, an 1859 adobe, a cemetery where area pioneers are buried, a lake and a variety of other attractions.

And in Santa Maria, the epicenter of strawberry farming in Santa Barbara County, you can tour Manzanita Berry Farms to see how the berries are grown, harvested and sent off to market.

But many operators said they receive few to no visitors, and the ones they do get are often specifically interested in what they have, not people traveling as general agritourists.

Little response

Reynolds said on-farm recreational opportunities - from harvest festivals to wedding facilities - are increasing, indicating a growing interest in agritourism.

In a survey of Northern California residents, she found 68 percent of respondents said they participated in agricultural or nature tourism in the previous year.

But a random survey of local destinations on the Small Farm Center database showed few, if any, have benefited from agritourism in general or the database in particular.

“I think it's a good idea or I wouldn't have signed up,” said Cathy Duncan, owner of the Price Ranch. “I think people really are more interested in visiting wineries.”

Duncan, who has owned the former dairy since 2002 said she has been signed up as an agritourism site for “some time.”

But she has only received “one or two calls” about the ranch, which offers school tours, historical exhibits, ranch-style vacations, trail rides and almost endless photographic subjects.

Duncan said most visitors are kids in programs for at-risk youths and those who purchase or win visits she donates to local fundraisers.

“Old-timers come by, those who remember growing up here and coming to the ranch when they were young, maybe to go fishing,” she added. “I think the world just rushes by a little fast.”

In Lompoc, many people who visit the Flying V are locals, said Tina Westin, who owns the llama ranch with husband Bob.

“We have more people who are in the area visiting Solvang and Lompoc and see the opportunity for tours,” she explained, noting many say they found the ranch on the Solvang Conference and Visitors Bureau Web site.

“We're listed in a lot of places we don't even know about,” she added with a chuckle.

Their business comes in spurts, she said. During spring break, 75 to 100 people toured the ranch. But last weekend, when the Arroyo Grande Strawberry Festival drew some 50,000 people, the ranch had none.

“It depends on what other activities people have available to do,” she explained.

But she said things are slowing down anyway at the ranch, which once had 50 llamas and now has 38, because she and Bob are getting older and aren't actively breeding the animals anymore.

“We stopped the school tours a while ago,” Westin added. “The kids aren't as well-behaved as they used to be.”

At Return to Freedom outside Lompoc, most of the visitors are people interested in wild horses, protecting their habitat and saving them from destruction, said Jill Anderson, communications director.

Others are students, Scout troops and families who come for work-day camp-outs. Some come just to tour the ranch; others on work-study programs hike into the hills to observe the behavior of wild horses.

Many find out about the ranch from its own Web site, a few through its brochures in local hotels.

“I don't know that anybody has come for a tour because of the (Small Farm Center) Web site.”

David Peck, who owns Manzanita Berry Farms in Santa Maria, said he signed up for the online database about a year ago but has had “no calls yet,” despite two recent local strawberry festivals and the current berry harvest in full swing.

He agreed with Duncan on where the agritourists are: “I think they're all out touring wineries.”

Peck said a few friends and neighbors brought some groups of schoolchildren to the farm a couple of years ago, but that was the last time anyone asked for a tour.

Tapping the market

The low turnout at some agritourism destinations may indicate more marketing is needed, by individual operators as well as umbrella organizations.

Reynolds said the destination owners she's talked to have been happy with the database and had a good response. But she noted the Small Farm Center's online and printed regional agritour map - for Napa, Yolo and Solano counties - may contribute to that.

Some believe organized tours to multiple destinations, marketed to city folks who may have never seen a live cow or a strawberry farm in production, might boost agritourism.

Duncan said she doesn't really need the income from agritourists, so she doesn't actively promote visits, but many ranchers have to find some way to make their operations economically viable.

“They are no longer exempt from state property taxes, and their properties are hugely valuable,” she said.

But she also said ranch tours may become more popular once people get over “some of their paranoia about rangeland and cow-calf operations.”

“It worries me that some people see agricultural people as not being environmentalists, when they were they first people out here caring for the land when no one else cared about it,” she said.

“Ranchers treasure their land as viewscapes. ... For most ranchers, the thought of selling their land just kills them,” she said. “But people have to understand: There can be 300 houses there or it can be a large, intact ranch.”

June 3, 2007