Regenerative tourism and stewardship are now mainstream. They are profitable ventures for those hotels and resorts that put in the blood, sweat and tears to set up the programs properly.
Agrobiodiversity is a niche way to create exceptional guest experiences and drive demand or average daily rate lift.
In today’s world of endless brand expansions and luxury hotel popularity, guests yearn for places that offer more than just beach access. They want exclusivity and are willing to pay more for it — exclusive access to historic sights, private excursions to remote destinations or, in this case, the ability to taste unique, esoteric foods.
The next step for regenerative tourism
Embracing agrobiodiversity is another step hotels can take, one that’s both noble and also not well-known.
It's a practice becoming increasingly important as climate resiliency efforts become more common. Agrobiodiversity involves the planning efforts to shift away from monocropping, or the widespread planting of single crops on the same land year over year. Monocropping is a contributor to carbon emissions and puts people at risk of superbug-borne food scarcity or crop collapse.
The revenue opportunity for hotels is to support food crop resiliency through agrobiodiversity as a method to ramp up a brand’s regenerative cachet, heighten the availability of locally sourced nutritious foods and create culinary, wellness or agricultural experiences that sell.
More about agrobiodiversity
Agrobiodiversity is the practice of increasing the variety of food crops grown, both within a species by using heirloom cultivars or landraces, and by farming different edible species that are either highly regional or not commonly known at the supermarket.
These are not the bananas and corncobs at your local grocery store, which have been domesticated and genetically modified, resulting in high-yield crops that come at a price of a large carbon footprint and dependence on pesticides.
Indigenous crops are hardier and well-adapted to their region, most often requiring no chemical sprays or other additives. Yields are smaller and growth has its challenges, but agrobiodiversity is next-level regenerative agriculture, helping provide foods that may resist blights while restoring soil quality and contributing a lighter carbon footprint.
For every fruit and vegetable that hits the shelves in the average North American or European supermarket, there are dozens or hundreds of wilder, largely undomesticated species, each with a story to tell.
Instead of mangos, why not wild mangos? Cavendish bananas are high yield but also highly boring because you can find them all around the world, so why not wilder types like blue java or pink? In the bakery, try out spelt or einkorn wheat instead of the lower-nutrient durum that’s in nearly all bread products. Consider underappreciated herbs, nuts, tubers, seeds, sauces, desserts, cheeses, beverages and even cocktail recipes that an intrepid proprietor can bring to the forefront.
This is the goal of agrobiodiversity for hotels: Tell the story of the planet’s beauty by refocusing on the forgotten foods of the local land, and turn a profit for your efforts.
How to make money from agrobiodiversity?
In a word: experiences. If you are serving the same food as the restaurant down the street, what makes your restaurant special? Service, decor and presentation will work, but agrobiodiversity activates a fourth lever.
While this is more of a trend for rural properties, an urban hotel can partner with heritage farms or develop approachable education campaigns in collaboration with local chefs to fight cuisine homogenization. In a push for hyperlocal, this can be an angle to consider. To add to the prestige for a restaurant, organizations like Michelin have their Green Star program to highlight sustainable F&B businesses. Regardless, a lot of thought has to be given to the strategy as these relationships will require a purchasing manager, tighter reordering controls and more seasonal menu reshuffling.
A hotel can go further than a restaurant by offering elements of culinary immersion. Think cooking classes that showcase rare foods, or an onsite organic garden or agroforestry setup for tours and farm-to-fork experiences.
Agrobiodiversity can impact the spa where skincare or cosmetic products can be infused with rarer, local ingredients.
Right now, agrobiodiversity is mostly a luxury play. Guests are willing to pay more per plate for tasting these esoteric ingredients. And with today’s shift in value away from McLuxury properties, guests want more than just beach access, a bar overlooking the ocean and a spa with great massages. They crave sense of place, authenticity, exclusivity and scarcity.
Ultimately, agrobiodiversity is hardly a silver bullet towards obtaining that uniqueness that draws in the jetsetters, but it can be a key pillar for defining the brand.
Examples in hospitality
Here are a few places already embracing the practice of agrobiodiversity:
1. The Lodge and Spa at Brush Creek Ranch north of Denver in Wyoming embraces the ranch-to-table philosophy for high ADR. The lodge grows 80 different varieties of fruits and heirloom vegetables in their greenhouse, and the grains power their distillery. The lodge supports the regrowth of indigenous crops and also leans into sustainable, foraged ingredients like juniper for distilling gin, wild herbs like blackberry mint, and sour berries that are significantly higher in antioxidants than their store-bought comparisons.
2. The Peninsula in Bangkok offers a Thai herbs 101 program from the hotel’s own ‘Naturally Peninsula’ garden. The course invites guests to discover Thailand’s most renowned herbs and spices used in many natural products such as foods, medicines, cosmetics, essential oils and balms with ingredients like kaffir lime, lemongrass, galangal, krachai, fingerroot, citronella and turmeric – all an integral part of Thai culture.
3. Aitutaki Lagoon Private Island Resort in the Cook Islands has only 33 bungalows and also an organic garden. It grows mainstays like coconut, papaya, bananas and limes but also breadfruit and the indigenous, ‘exploding planet’ Hala fruit for guests to try. Adventurous guests may even try the ‘vomit fruit’ noni, which has been renowned in Polynesia for its medicinal qualities for centuries.
4. The Fairmont Rio de Janeiro Copacabana’s signature restaurant, Marine Resto, has its own branded olive oil. Rather than import olive oil from the Mediterranean, this hotel takes advantage of Brazil's burgeoning olive oil production capabilities. They source fruttato olives locally, thereby supporting this growing industry and also helping fulfill Accor’s Planet 21 sustainability pledge.
5. To bring this over to the restaurant side, Gustu in La Paz, Bolivia, has set up a localized supply chain and rotating menu that celebrates Bolivia’s diverse ecosystems and promotes niche crops from the Andes and Amazon such as inca nuts and mashua tubers, as well as traditional dishes like thayacha, or Andean ice cream.
6. Hardly the only restaurant that’s embracing local biodiversity, another example from South America is Nuema, in Quito, Ecuador. Over a multi-course tasting menu, diners experience more than 75 ingredients sourced from the country’s different ecological zones, including macambo, or "the other chocolate."
7. Buahan, a Banyan Tree Escape in the jungles of Bali, Indonesia, offers a Traditional Jamu Elixir experience. Here, guests are taken through the full process of making this ancient health tonic starting with the roots, bark, spices and seeds through to cooking and consuming.
Contact us through our website for book recommendations that touch on agrobiodiversity.
Adam and Larry Mogelonsky are partners of Hotel Mogel Consulting Ltd., a Toronto-based consulting practice. Larry focuses on asset management, sales and operations while Adam specializes in hotel technology and marketing.
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