In a world where one social media post can create a tourist stampede, some unlikely places are quickly becoming huge destinations for holidaymakers … and some grey nomads.
The current craze for having a photograph taken in a field of sunflowers has seen travellers make a beeline for farms and fields, but the results have not always been good.
Information centres sometimes promote visits to sunflower fields, providing directions on where to find the latest blossoming fields. It has led many tourists to travel hours to get to fields to take selfies and photos and pose in the sunflowers.
However, some farmers have expressed concern at seeing thousands of people stream onto their sunflower fields, destroying paddocks and crops. They sometimes leave rubbish behind and have been caught stealing sunflower heads.
Sunflower grower Craig Smith from Queensland’s Darling Downs told the ABC last year that on some weekends he had to chase hundreds of tourists out of his paddock.
“They do a lot of damage just walking through the paddocks, knocking plants down, compacting the ground, breaking sunflowers off and taking them,” he said. “We are happy to have them come and take photos, but we are not happy with them walking all over our paddocks and dropping rubbish and taking sunflower heads.”
However, others like Michele Stephens, who runs an organic veggie farm at Cudgen in Northern New South Wales has totally embraced what she sees as a new opportunity.
After one photo taken by her son became an Instagram mega hit, she found large numbers of domestic and overseas tourists arriving on her doorstep.
But she says the sunflower tourism helps the cafe she has opened on the site, and she now allows visitors to take a sunflower home
“We already had people walking around the farm and enjoying the farm, so I thought we’d give them a field of sunflowers,” she said. “They make people happy.”
Ms Stephens said her plans for the future of her farm include “sunflowers and more sunflowers”.
Wonderful
I agree it’s great to take pics of the beautiful Sunflowers but it’s not ok to just wonder through the owners paddock Willy nilly without permission, it would be no different if this was done around your home without asking first ,but there are those that think they can do as they please, and many are Asians who totally ignore everyone and everything