A practical handbook published by the Rural Development Bureau, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in March 2025, for travel companies to effectively plan and sell farm stay educational travel products.
For travel companies, farm stay educational travel is positioned as a new product category that can provide experiential value different from conventional sightseeing tours. This handbook systematically organizes methods for understanding the educational value of farm stay areas, appropriately packaging them as travel products, and effectively proposing them to schools and boards of education.
Regarding basic concepts of product planning, the importance of emphasizing consistency with the Course of Study and clearly promoting educational effectiveness is shown. Specifically, it is required to clearly indicate relationships with each subject (social studies, science, integrated study time, etc.) and structure them as consistent educational programs from preliminary learning through on-site experience to post-learning.
For collaboration with farm stay areas, the coordination function of accurately understanding regional reception systems and available experiential menus and matching school needs with regional resources is considered important. Additionally, detailed explanations are provided regarding confirmation of safety management systems, establishment of emergency response procedures, and explanation of insurance and compensation systems, which schools emphasize regarding safety considerations.
For sales strategies, proposal methods corresponding to school decision-making processes (principals, vice-principals, grade leaders, boards of education, etc.) based on understanding educational travel market characteristics are introduced. Regarding pricing, methods for creating explanatory materials to appropriately explain the balance between educational effectiveness and cost-effectiveness and gain parental understanding are specifically shown.
For quality control, the importance of continuous collaboration with farm stay areas to improve instructor skills, facility and equipment improvements, and program content enhancement is emphasized. Additionally, detailed explanations are provided regarding product improvement methods utilizing feedback from participating children, students, and accompanying teachers.
For marketing development, differentiation strategies utilizing farm stay educational travel characteristics (nature experience, agricultural experience, regional exchange, food education, etc.) and information dissemination methods utilizing social media and word-of-mouth are introduced. Particularly, the importance of performance promotion utilizing participated school cases and participating children and student impressions is shown.
The article concludes that travel companies can play important roles in achieving both rural area revitalization and educational quality improvement by appropriately commercializing and selling farm stay educational travel.