How Having A 4WD Agritourism Adventure Ride Brought Revenue To My Durian Farm And Boost My Farm's Popularity

Hi, are you interested in offering a farm ride or some kind of four wheel adventure in your farm? If so, read on...

A 4WD or four wheel drive ride is where you allow visitors to ride in your truck.

I did not have the grand idea at first. It was born out of necessity. You see, my farm can only be reached using a four wheel drive.

The roads are bad, bumpy and muddy.

So I was wondering how I could overcome this problem. If I ask my visitors to drive in, they would not be able to do so without a 4x4.

Hi, my name is Stephen and I run a durian farm agritourism business in the small town of Bentong, Pahang in a small country called Malaysia. You can check out my agritourism business at www.bloopydurians.com

A Problem Turns Into A Money Making Agritourism Business

Sometimes a big problem can be turned into a solution. The solution can actually be a source of great revenue.

I have this problem:

• Visitors cannot enter my farm unless they have 4WD

Most visitors won't have the 4WD type of cars like a Toyota Hilux. So I risk having no customers visit me.

Then I had this thought. Why don't I offer my visitors a ride in to the farm using my own four wheel drive. I could fit in 5 people in the Toyota Hilux cabin and 5 people in the hilux bed behind.

If there are more than 10 people, let's say there are 20 people, I could hire one of my friends who have a four wheel drive to take another 10 people in.

The solution is this:

• Offer visitors a ride in using our 4WD and charge them $9 USD per person. The $9 includes the four wheel drive ride and also farm entrance plus farm tour.

Will People Actually Pay For The 4WD Ride?

When you start to charge a higher price for a special or extra experience the next question is this...will people be willing to pay for it?

You see I do charge people to eat durians at my farm based on weight. 1 Kilogram or 2.2 pound of durian may cost $10 to $15.

So on top of the durians, my guest have to fork out another $9 for the ride in.

Some questions that run in my mind is:

• Will people pay extra for the ride in?

• Will my customer think its too expensive and go elsewhere?

• What if they don't want the ride in and just want to eat durians?

• What if no one wants to come?

You see when you want to start something, there will be many many questions that will come to your mind. They seem to be a mountain that is so big.

However, I needed to start my agritourism business and the only way to bring people into my farm is to have them ride in using our 4WD.

So I put the pricing on my website $9 USD per pax and then durians will be charged by weight.

Two things started to happen:

1. Many people were interested to visit my farm, but when they realized about the extra $9 for the ride in, they refuse to pay and did not want to come

2. Surprisingly some visitors did not mind the extra charge and were willing to come in. They feel that it is an extra adventure

The $9 For Farm Ride Acted As A Filter And Also Brought In Extra Revenue

What I did not realize at that time was the extra $9 actually acted as a filter to bring in the very type of customers that were really interested in what my farm has to offer.

You see, if 100 people find your farm and only 20 people are interested, the other 80 may not be the right type of customers that you need.

Many businesses do not have a filter and that is why not everyone truly enjoys the business.

A business always need to have a strong filter to find or cater to the very special type of customers that will truly enjoy what you have to offer.

The extra $9 filtered out people who:

• Are not willing to spend, they are always looking for a bargain

• Do not like outdoor and do not like to go to farms

• Do not like four wheel drive rides

• Only like comfort, air conditioned shops

In fact the extra $9 brought in people who are interested in:

• Four Wheel drive adventures and rides

• Going into a real durian farm, with all the hot weather and mosquitos. For them it is a unique experience

• They are more willing to spend, in a more touristy mood and not calculating about money

• People who really enjoy what I have to offer

I think the best thing that ever happens to a business is if you offer something unique that speaks to your customer and they are actively looking for a unique experience or product that you have.

Since the people who came into my farm really like the adventure and do not mind paying extra, I must admit that my visitors are actually happier and friendlier towards me.

5 Star Reviews Keep Coming Up At My Google Business

I mentioned about how my visitors actually like what I have to offer.

When you have a strong filter and and unique offering, you tend to attract the best qualified clients in the world.

Many people think we need to serve every customer in the world that is interested in your fruit. If there are 10,000 in your town looking for your fruit, do you really need to serve all of them?

The surprising answer is no.

If there are 10,000 people, you just need to serve a small portion of them. Even if you serve 100 people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer, your business can make lots of money.

You can charge higher for your products and since the price is higher you do not need to have a lot of people.

Would you like to serve 500 people but can only charge $5

or

Would it be better to serve 100 targeted interested people but you can charge $25?

For the first one you will need to do a lot more work serving more people. For the second one, you do less work and the beauty of it is the 100 people are much more interested in what you have to offer rather than the 500 people who are vaguely interested in what you have to offer.

With many targeted customers...who like what I offer...

I get more happy visitors.

And happy visitors translate into great reviews on Google Business. My business keeps getting more and more 5 star reviews on Google and that in turns bring in more targeted visitors who like what I have to offer.

The more 5 star reviews you get on your Google Business profile page, the more traffic you will have to your business. If you have a website, the traffic to your website will also increase tremendously.

Well written 5 star reviews that comes from the heart of the visitors are usually longer and more than 1 paragraph long.

These are the ones that will really draw customers to your farm. If you want to learn how to get lots of 5 star reviews that matter, do contact me at the whatsapp link or send me an email.

I will spend some time with you and show you how you can also turn your farm into a global destination for international tourists.

I Stumbled Upon A Unique Selling Proposition / A Special Niche

In order for your farm to be a top tourist destination in your state or country, you need to be able to separate yourself from the rest of the pack.

In my industry, there are already many farms in Malaysia that offer visitors an opportunity to visit a durian farm.

So in fact all over Malaysia, I have tons of competition.

Some of these competition have deep pockets and they have the money to build lots of infrastructure and nice roads into their durian orchard.

Some durian orchard have restaurants, tourists attractions and large lake or ponds that are such an ideal place for people to take a walk or stroll.

If I were to compete with the other durian plantations, I guess I would never be able to win them.

Instead, I carve out a unique offering. This is what I offer:

• Durian tasting (which others do)

• At a organic farm (some are not organic, so I stand out a bit)

• Offering a four wheel drive adventure for a fee (many do not offer)

• A short farm tour with me explaining durian cultivation to my visitors (not many do)

Based on the above, my farm www.bloopydurians.com stand out from the rest of the competition because I carve out a special and unique niche that many do not offer.

Although the amount of people that I serve may not be as many as the other durian farm, nevertheless, my special group of people are enough for me to run a business.

So when you want to attract visitors to your farm, always ask yourself these questions:

• What can I offer that others do not?

• What is something special that I can do for / with my visitors

If you want some help to find your USP, feel free to contact me for a short free consultation. I aspire to help as many farm owners around the world to grow their agritourism business.

I Stumbled Upon A Blue Ocean Strategy

If you are into business, you would have come across the concept of Blue Ocean Strategy. This concept was developed by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne and presented in their famous book “Blue Ocean Strategy”

In the book, they stated that Red Ocean is where there are plenty of competition. Picture an ocean with lots of big sharks eating people and tearing the flesh out of people. Thus, it is filled with blood and red in colour.

To succeed in a red ocean, you need to be big, strong and powerful.

If you are just starting out, you might get swallowed up in a red ocean.

Therefore, you need to enter or create your own Blue Ocean. A blue ocean is where there is an uncontested market where you create a new demand by offering something that is very unique.

Let's take the example of a strawberry farm with You pick...

If you want to start a farm like this, there are already plenty of farms like this that charge $5-$15 for strawberry picking.

Instead, why not create a blue ocean?

• You start a strawberry You Pick business and add in a strawberry tour with "how to make your own strawberry jam" education.

You can make the entire experience to be 90 minutes and perhaps charge adults for $30 and children at $20. If a group of 10 adults and 10 children come for that session, you already have a sales of $500 for that 90 minute session.

If you are inspired with this idea, do contact me as I would like to help you to brainstorm ways to make money in your farm.

If I can stumble upon a Blue Ocean for my durian farm, I'm sure together we can come up with ways to make a Blue Ocean for your farm.

My Farm Became A Destination For Family With Young Children

When I first started my agritourism business in my durian farm, I never thought that my best customers will be children!

I soon discovered that children love coming to my farm, it is like Disneyland for them (farm version)

That's because:

• The children love the open air four wheel drive ride in and out of the farm on bumpy roads

To them it was like a roller coaster ride. Many children loved it, which surprised me. Some will actually ask me to drive faster!

Sometimes when you start an agritourism business, you never know who your main customers are.

I always thought that adults will come in, eat the durians and walk around the farm. Little did I know it is little children who will enjoy the farm tour the most.

Many children come to my farm during durian season.

I am like a teacher taking them round the farm and explaining things to them. For me it is a great satisfaction to be able to contribute to the outdoor learning experience of these children.

I hope that my story inspires you to take the next step in bringing your farm to the next level. By offering agritourism in your farm, not only do you get to make an extra income, you also get to contribute to society as well.

If you are ready to jump into agritourism and do not know where to start, do contact me for a short call. I would love to help you turn your farm into a global tourist destination.