Pursuits
Can Hobbit Tourism Save These Troubled Dairy Farmers?
- Milk price plunge pushes 80% of dairy farmers into the red
- Blow softened by tourism boom as Hobbiton tour sales soar
A Hobbit home at the Hobbiton film set in Matamata, New Zealand.
Photographer: Anna Gorin/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
New Zealand farmer Ian Diprose used to count on the dairy industry for most of his income. Today, he relies on tourism.
As plunging milk prices push dairy farms into the red and hurt rural businesses, Diprose and wife Joy are making more money accommodating tourists than other farmers’ cows. That’s because their grazing property in Waikato, New Zealand’s dairying heartland, is about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from Hobbiton, a life-sized imitation of Bilbo Baggins’ Shire created for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies.