MOOSE JAW, Sask. — The best story on Karen Bonesky’s farm in Morse, Sask. was thrown into the well decades ago.
That is where the still, run by her husband’s uncle, was pitched when his sister-in-law got hold of it.
Most people thought the smoke rising from his blacksmith shop in the 1920s was evidence of a man hard at work, not a brew in full ferment.
While that story is the most dramatic, Bonesky said her farm could have other attractions for tourists –which is just what Claude-Jean Harel wanted to hear.
Read Also
Stock dogs show off herding skills at Ag in Motion
Stock dogs draw a crowd at Ag in Motion. Border collies and other herding breeds are well known for the work they do on the farm.
Harel led a Feb. 15 seminar on agritourism aimed at getting farmers to think of stories that would attract tourists.
Harel has been telling Saskatchewan’s tales to a national CBC French television audience since 1986. But he is leaving journalism to run a full-time business called Great Excursions.
The Regina-based tour and consulting company makes up packages for tourists or works with others to offer their travel adventures.
Full meal deal
Harel said touching emotions is the best way to pull in tourist dollars. A bed-and-breakfast operation is improved if it is packaged with a wagon ride over the pasture to Indian tepee rings, followed by a campfire meal. The smells, sounds and tastes are enhanced when put into a logical and genuine experience.
An example of a tourist venture that didn’t work, he said, is the Disney facility set up in Paris. The American culture didn’t fit with European memories and attendance was low until Disney incorporated French stories into its theme and rides.
Use what you have
Harel said most people say Sask-atchewan farms have little to draw tourists. But he went on a tour of Belfast in Northern Ireland that incorporated the Catholic-Protestant war, the bombings, the poverty and the deaths. It was a success because it touched peoples’ lives.
“You can tell a story out of whatever you’ve got,” said Harel.
“We have to create a brand for Sask-atchewan, a visibility.”
He said a Regina cemetery is the focus of a walking tour. It tells of the happy marriages, the immigrant experiences and the unfortunate deaths that exist among the 25,000 graves.
Bonesky said there is a small unused house on their farm that could be used to illustrate the richness of the land and its heritage with visitors. Wildlife, birding, the outdoors, relaxation and a healthy lifestyle could be offered.
“I believe we are holistic beings. I think I’d like to capture all those experiences.”
Just as her husband’s uncle was an early entrepreneur supplying a local service with his homemade alcohol, so too must today’s farmers be enterprising, she said.
Bonesky said too often Saskatchewanians focus on financial troubles and people leaving the farm. But to become “vital,” the province’s residents must become ambassadors and share what they have with others.
“We’ve got lots of stories of resiliency and creativity,” said Bonesky.
Roy Emerson of Tourism Saskat-chewan told the group that it is not enough to set up a bed-and-breakfast and hope to fill it through “random acts of tourism.”
He said the best use of resources is to package the B&B with local educational and entertainment events and promote it to fill the place for six weeks rather than a night or two here and there through the year.
“How do you explain the experience of joy and freedom under the big sky,” asked seminar participant Don Wilkins, when asked to help create a tour package for the Old Wives Lake area south of Moose Jaw.
He and his small group later came up with a history-drenched experience incorporating horses, aboriginal culture and buffalo burgers.
Other ideas developed by the delegates include learning how a prairie beekeeper works, how early farm wives put up preserves, campfire stories with no cell phones ringing and a festival telling the stories of immigrants.
One group drew rueful laughs when it suggested any community could capture a piece of the tourist dollar by setting up a wailing wall for farmers.
