Down on the farm

During the week, business guests fill all of Veronica Worth's 18 en suite bedrooms, each centrally heated and double glazed and fitted with direct-dialling telephones, trouser presses and tea- and coffee-making equipment. Guests and local businesses regularly book the lounge for meetings, and it is also a popular venue for civil weddings. "Last year, we did 26; this year, we've 28 arranged," says Worth.

Weekends are almost as busy, mainly with leisure guests visiting relatives or local attractions.

At a conservative estimate, occupancy averages around 80%, despite the operation's seasonal nature, with a high level of repeat business and word-of-mouth bookings.

Room rates are £35 single, £45 double, including full English breakfast. Worth says she has never discounted, even in the worst days of the recession: "I never had to. No one ever asked."

Worth doesn't do lunch or dinner. Hungry guests are sent down the footpath she's built to the local pub. Alternatively, they can use the kitchen to prepare themselves a light snack.

Surprisingly, her business isn't a guesthouse or a small hotel. It is Sandhole Farm, a 200-acre arable enterprise at Hulme Walfield, near Congleton, Cheshire, which grows potatoes and turf for gardens. Worth and her husband diversified in 1989 when farming went through a slump, converting a redundant stable block for guest accommodation.

"Guests like the peace and quiet and we offer good value for money," says Worth, "but we never thought the business would be so big. It's getting to be better than farming. It's certainly more reliable, because you can always guarantee rooms will be full, whereas the price of potato crops varies from year to year."

pinnacle

Worth's business is at the pinnacle of the farm accommodation market, but the facilities she offers are by no means unique. She belongs to the Farm Holiday Bureau (FHB), a marketing co-operative of around 1,000 UK farms that have diversified into holidays, bed-and-breakfast accommodation and self-catering. Chairman Carol Akers says that providing accommodation began as pin money for farmers' wives but it is now treated as a serious business proposition, particularly as many traditional aspects of farming have become financially unviable.

"Farmers have found it a valuable source of income, so they're investing in it, converting redundant buildings and improving amenities," says Akers. "En suite is becoming the norm because of demand. Businesses are being more professionally run, with farmers installing computers and fax machines to handle reservations and accounts, and doing marketing. Our organisation is now on the Internet, and individual farms are starting to take pages for promotion.

"Since April last year," she adds, "all our members have had to be inspected and graded by the National Tourist Boards, as well as by us, as quality assurance for visitors. Three crowns is the highest rating obtainable."

Rising standards, coupled with more energetic marketing, have led to a steady rise in the market for farm accommodation. In the FHB's most recent survey, 57% of members reported a better business picture in 1995 than in the previous year, with an increase in the length of the season. The English Tourist Board's tourism statistics show that farm visits rose by 57% between 1989 and 1995, compared with 10% for other leisure attractions.

Prime spots

Farms in the prime tourist spots, such as the Cotswolds, Yorkshire Dales and parts of Scotland, have the highest occupancy levels. Around 70% of guests are couples, but self-catering is a growth area among families with children. Foreign visitor numbers are rising too.

Akers says that what attracts guests is the farm experience: "They like the quiet of the countryside, the rural setting, good home cooking and the animals, though not all farms have them. They also appreciate the value for money. Average charge for bed and breakfast is £18. Some farms do evening meals. Some businesses have created farm trails or keep a few extra animals purely for visitors."

FHB member Robin Head who, with his wife, runs a bed-and-breakfast operation at 55-acre Harton Farm, near Tiverton, Devon, believes that some farms are over-diversifying, with counterproductive results. "Visitors are disappointed by farms that are becoming too much like hotels," he says, "yet there is pressure to do so because of the grading system."

Farm tourism is now receiving a boost from the European Union through its Objective 5b programme which, between 1994 and 1999, is ploughing around £620m into six rural areas in need of economic regeneration.

Under this programme, farms in designated areas - among them, large chunks of Cumbria, Wales, Lincolnshire and Devon, plus all of Cornwall - can obtain capital investment for new farm tourism projects or to upgrade existing amenities, and financial assistance with marketing, business development and training.

Funding has to be matched by similar investment from farmers, the private sector and other participants. Capital projects range from guest accommodation and leisure attractions to farm shops and craft centres. A group of farms in Devon has obtained funding for computers, and training to run their holiday businesses.

Brian McLaughlin, the National Farmers Union's head of environment and land use, believes that Objective 5b will encourage new participants and improve the quality of farm projects. "It will encourage farmers to look at their tourism potential and to think about innovative schemes," he says. "Increasingly, it is high-quality projects that are wanted, so we may see a general upgrading of accommodation."

In Lincolnshire, farm tourism project officer Rosemary James says that Objective 5b will help develop tourism in the county's rural hinterland. "With this programme, we want to raise the profile of rural Lincolnshire as a tourist destination," she says.

"With the exception of the coast, it has limited tourism and a low level of development, yet in the Wolds it has an area of outstanding natural beauty. We have about 3,000 farms, 10% of which are involved in leisure enterprises and accommodation provision. What we're after is slow, sustainable development."

Among Lincolnshire's Objective 5b beneficiaries is Anne Hobbins of the Manor Farm House, West Barkwith, who has obtained 25% marketing funding for a brochure to promote her 18th-century farmhouse's bed-and-breakfast accommodation, a venture launched last summer.

In Legbourne, Louth, Jenny Harrison and her husband and are seeking capital funding to convert a farm building into self-catering accommodation. She hopes to get as much as 50% of the cost from 5b and the remainder from the Rural Development Commission and other sources.

This year she is starting bed and breakfast "for financial reasons", linking up with Bridle Rides, an equestrian holiday organisation, to provide stabling for horses as well as guest accommodation.