Oleotourism on The Rise in Central California

Agritourism is surg­ing on the Central Coast of California, and vis­i­tors are swap­ping the trek to Greece, Italy or Spain for California to sam­ple award-win­ning extra vir­gin olive oils.

The area’s tourism indus­try is soar­ing, with vis­i­tors spend­ing $2.15 bil­lion (€2 bil­lion), and local pro­duc­ers are respond­ing to the grow­ing inter­est in edu­ca­tional agro­tourism by offer­ing tast­ings, tours and on-farm expe­ri­ences.

“In the last few years, we are get­ting many more requests to have what’s best described as a ​‘farm expe­ri­ence,’” Shaana Rahman, co-owner of Boccabella Farms and chair of the board of direc­tors of the California Olive Council, told Olive Oil Times.

“We’re field­ing calls from RV groups and peo­ple who love camp­ing and want to be immersed in farm life, albeit for just a night or two, and get to know how olive oil is made,” she added.

Rahman said olive oil tourism is evolv­ing from olive oil tast­ings to more immer­sive learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties about farm­ing and milling.

“They are excited to have a tour through the orchard, touch the trees, see the fruit, and lis­ten to the steps we take from tree to table to make extra vir­gin olive oil,” she said.

After a sig­nif­i­cant decline due to the Covid-19 pan­demic, offi­cials believe the indus­try fully recov­ered in 2023 based on var­i­ous tourism-related indi­ca­tors.

According to Visit California, a non­profit, travel spend­ing in the Golden State exceeded $134 bil­lion (€125 bil­lion) in 2022, nearly dou­ble the low water­mark in 2020 and slightly below the lev­els reached in 2018 and 2019.

Some pro­duc­ers are cap­i­tal­iz­ing on increased inter­est in their regions. ​“Paso Robles and San Miguel have become a tourist des­ti­na­tion,” Richard Meisler, the co-owner of San Miguel Olive Farm, said.

Indeed, Visit California data indi­cate that 2022 was a record year for tourism in San Luis Obispo County, a hotspot for high-qual­ity olive oil pro­duc­tion, with overnight vis­i­tors spend­ing more than $2.1 bil­lion (€2 bil­lion), exceed­ing the pre­vi­ous record set in 2019 by seven per­cent.

“Our tours have increased along with the sale of our oils, both indoors and out­doors,” Meisler said. ​“People are cruis­ing in the areas and stop where some­thing looks good. Years ago, one car on the road was excit­ing. Yes, tourism is on the rise.”

Meisler and his wife, Myrna, hope to take advan­tage of another good year for travel in 2024 with their tast­ing room, which offers views of their farm and olive grove.

“The quiet atmos­phere, soft after­noon breeze, blue skies, and an occa­sional bunny rab­bit run­ning around are also free,” Meisler said.

In down­town Paso Robles, Ruth Mercurio con­firmed that the area has seen a notice­able increase in agri­tourism.

“They come in excited to taste, learn, and ask ques­tions,” We Olive’s owner and man­ag­ing part­ner told Olive Oil Times. ​“Many are keen to seek out local olive farms, espe­cially ones with an olive press.”

Mercurio has actively embraced the role of an oleo­tourism ambas­sador for the county and said she rec­om­mends a range of local olive farms to vis­i­tors.

One of the farms she sug­gests is Kiler Ridge. Co-owner Audrey Burnam said that while wine is the unde­ni­able agri­tourism attrac­tion in the state, there is an increas­ing inter­est in olive oil.

“We see a grow­ing inter­est from vis­i­tors in learn­ing about olive oil and other local farm-pro­duced prod­ucts like laven­der, cheese and mush­rooms,” she said.

While the 2023/24 crop year is fin­ish­ing up in the Golden State, pro­duc­ers said the abun­dant har­vest means there will be plenty of extra vir­gin olive oil to sam­ple through­out the peak sum­mer tourism sea­son.

“This year’s har­vest was the biggest, best, and lat­est we have ever had,” Rahman said. ​“The fruit was abun­dant and beau­ti­ful, although the tim­ing of bloom, fruit set, and weather caused the har­vest to be much delayed.”

Rahman explained that the har­vest is usu­ally fin­ished by the end of November. However, this year, olive pick­ing did not start until the end of November and con­tin­ued in December and January.

“A January har­vest is unprece­dented for us, but it was really excit­ing to do a last, late pick of just the ripest olives for our late-har­vest extra vir­gin olive oil,” Rahman said.

Meisler agreed. ​“This year, our olive har­vest was huge. Ninety-eight per­cent of our 1,200 trees were loaded,” he said. ​“The rain was a bless­ing after a small har­vest in 2022 when we had only 40 per­cent of our nor­mal crop.”

However, the abun­dant har­vest resulted in some smaller grow­ers being unable to har­vest all of their fruit due to the sheer quan­tity and ris­ing labor costs.

“This year, the cost of labor and the den­sity of trees made hand har­vest­ing slower and more costly,” Meisler said. ​“Giving up so many beau­ti­ful olives makes my heart sad. Pruning the trees for easy access should give us another great crop.”

Along with small farm­ers, local millers also noticed a size­able increase in busi­ness this year.

“2023 was an out­stand­ing har­vest sea­son for cen­tral coast olive oil pro­duc­ers,” Burnam said. ​“Olive oil pro­duc­tion was at a his­toric high (more than dou­ble last year), and the qual­ity of the fruit was out­stand­ing due to pro­longed spring rain, grower con­trol of olive fruit fly, quick time from har­vest to milling and delayed freeze which allowed grow­ers to har­vest their fruit at the opti­mal time.”

According to Chuck Davison, the pres­i­dent and chief exec­u­tive of San Luis Obispo County’s tourism office, 7.47 mil­lion peo­ple vis­ited the county in 2022, nearly reach­ing 2019 lev­els. ​“Tourism is the num­ber two eco­nomic dri­ver in the region, sec­ond only to agri­cul­ture,” he said.

Substantial efforts have already been made to make the Central Coast a wine and food des­ti­na­tion.

“It would be great to see a sim­i­lar effort to edu­cate the pub­lic on the sheer vol­ume of small-scale farm­ing being done on the Central Coast and the amaz­ing amount of farms pro­duc­ing olive oil,” Rahman said.

Mercurio agreed. ​“Extra vir­gin olive oil agri­tourism is all about build­ing con­nec­tions – to the land, with the farm­ers, and to the prod­ucts,” she said.

“It can turn an agri­tourist into a life­long fan and con­sumer,” Mercurio added. ​“Agritourism com­mu­ni­ties tend to be small and linked. The Central Coast extra vir­gin olive oil farm com­mu­nity is that. I think agri­tourists are look­ing for that con­nec­tion. They want to see it in action.”

Olive pro­duc­ers and busi­nesses note that word-of-mouth refer­rals and online reviews encour­age agri­tourists to visit and explore the Central Coast.

“The impor­tance of extra vir­gin olive oil agri­tourism also lies in the con­nec­tions the extra vir­gin olive oil farm­ers have with other farm­ers and busi­nesses and how they con­vey and share that with agri­tourists,” Mercurio said. ​“Agritourists aren’t ​‘one and done’ when vis­it­ing the area.”

“They move through the agri­tourism land­scapes based on research and rec­om­men­da­tion – and if the agri­tourist has a trusted con­nec­tion with the farmer, they will often go to other agri­tourism sites and busi­nesses based on that rec­om­men­da­tion,” she added. ​“That con­nec­tion now has just come full cir­cle. And it starts with know­ing your agri­tourism com­mu­nity and what it can offer the agri­tourist.”

Rahman said that social media has become a pow­er­ful tool to help pro­duc­ers con­nect with poten­tial agri­tourism cli­mates and the rest of the com­mu­nity.

“On a per­sonal level, I use my social media chan­nels to share farm life with peo­ple from all over the coun­try, encour­ag­ing them to visit the Central Coast and sup­port local farm­ers,” Rahman said. ​“In my capac­ity as chair of the board of direc­tors of the California Olive Oil Council, we are always talk­ing to peo­ple about buy­ing local and sup­port­ing our indus­try.”

Mesiler added that pos­i­tive reviews on social media and other inter­net review sites are good for pro­duc­ers. Still, vis­i­tors quickly spot a lack of pas­sion or enthu­si­asm for the project.

“If there is a pas­sion for what we do as grow­ers, peo­ple notice that. If farm vis­its are good in qual­ity, excit­ing and inter­est­ing, you will have it made,” he said.

For Burnham, edu­ca­tion is crit­i­cal to engag­ing agri­tourists and turn­ing them into cus­tomers.

“We’re now open five days a week for edu­ca­tional olive oil tast­ings, offer more exten­sive tours on week­ends and have started host­ing a few spe­cial events where we serve sea­sonal dishes paired with olive oils,” she said.

Rahman empha­sized par­tic­i­pa­tion, explain­ing that this past year, they have done a series of ​“cook-alongs” through­out California with local chefs, using local ingre­di­ents and California olive oil that have been filmed and pro­moted on social media.

“It has been such a tremen­dous way to show peo­ple not only how to cook with extra vir­gin olive oil but how to appre­ci­ate the bounty that is grown right here in California,” she con­cluded.

• Visit California