Momentum is starting to build again when it comes to group touring of the region's best agricultural sites.
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Agricultural Tours Riverina, which is owned and operated by Leeton's John Collins, has been drawing visitors both from domestic and international markets for some time.
While operations took a hit during the pandemic, Mr Collins reported visitors were starting to make a return.
Last year had many highlights, including a large group of young farmers from Japan who toured various agricultural operations such as farms and businesses.
These tours can take place all over, but in many instances the visitors come to Leeton shire and the wider MIA region to take in the vast variety of agricultural operations.
Another large group came from the NSW Range Rover Club, while domestic tourists from Melbourne also used Agricultural Tours Riverina to take in what the region has to offer.
"Given we operate in a niche part of the market, focusing on more technical and educational tours, it is taking a much longer time to recover from COVID than other categories of the tourism market," Mr Collins said.
"However, in saying that operations are picking up. We are getting many inquiries and groups are coming back.
"A lot of what we do is the international market, which is another reason why the recovery process has been taking some time, but recovering it is.
"I just had two inquiries on the same day from Japanese groups recently, one to send 28 students here for four days in November and another to send a group of industry leaders here for a couple of days in August."
During visits, the groups not only tour farms, agricultural businesses and other points of interest, but they of course utilise accommodation services, spend money in town, and visit restaurants and cafes.
Mr Collins said each group had its own interests in visiting the area.
"It varies so very much," he said.
"We've had a number of groups wanting to look at flower farms, we don't have much of that to show them here, we deal with them mostly in the Sydney basin, Hawkesbury, Central Coast, Illawarra areas. Every group can be different.
"They give us a brief of what they want to see. Some what to see organic, regenerative operations, marketing and much more.
"We had an interesting group last November, the NSW Range Rover Club. That was a significant domestic group we had.
"Their brief to us was 'we've got two weeks, show us everything in Riverina agriculture'.
"We took them all over."
For more information visit www.agriculturaltoursriverina.com.au.
