Bengalureans’ preferences for weekend getaways are moving beyond resorts. According to recent trends observed by industry stakeholders and the Tourism Department, more people are choosing experiential tourism in farms and nurseries over regular resorts.

Since a few years, the Tourism Department has been trying to promote weekend tourism in and around the city, and multiple farms which offer an array of experiences are contributing to weekend tourism plans.

“In the post-pandemic period, people’s interest in things like how their food is grown, the effort involved in farming and activities like sowing and harvesting has increased. From school children to urban families, we get a lot of visitors every week. In a month, we get around five families which stay with us while around 10 families come for day trips,” said Raghavendra Bhat, owner of Chiguru Farms near Harohalli.

Not just families, but friend groups, especially those in their 50s or 60s, enjoy such tour packages. “For our friends’ reunion, our group of 10 decided to visit a farm near Nelamangala instead of a resort. From the welcome drink to the thambuli they served us, the experiences sent us down a nostalgic lane which we had seen in our small town near Tumakuru back when we were young,” shared Vidya Rao, a retired government employee.

Srivathsa Govindaraju, the owner of Chiguru Ecospace near Magadi, who has been offering these experiences for 15 years, said that he sees a renewed interest among urban people in recent times. “People are frustrated with the same kind of experiences provided in all resorts. They want hands-on experiences and hence they come here to go foraging with us for edible plants, medicinal plants and then cook with us among other activities,” he explained.

Agri Tourism policy

Under the Karnataka Tourism Policy 2025 – 2029, agricultural tourism, under which such experiences fall, gets special focus. A senior official said that the department is in the process of identifying many such farms and bring a framework for their functioning. “We have seen that people like to go to vineries to see how the wine is made, food farms to learn more about their food and even dairy farms as those from younger generations have never seen the milking of a cow and hence do not know about where their milk comes from. There are people who do not know how mangoes are grown and that is why go to mango-farms on tours and some also like to go apiaries,” the official said.

He added, “We are identifying farmers who can be contributors to our agricultural tourism policy, and we will soon have a detailed framework for them.”

The stakeholders say that while the policy exists, it needs some changes for it to be beneficial. “The policy says that if we want to offer tourism, then the agricultural land should be converted into non-agricultural land. But that does not make sense as we still do full-fledged agricultural activities on the land. For the last four years, a group of us have been working with the policymakers and telling them what we need. We are awaiting the guidelines now and we hope that they enable us to offer these experiences,” Mr. Govindaraju said.