Stockton webinar outlines plan for capturing growing audience of users
By JACK FICHTER/Sentinel staff
With recreational marijuana now legal in New Jersey, entrepreneurs may find lucrative business opportunities related to cannabis tourism and hospitality ranging from retail dispensaries and agritourism to events for cannabis edibles and delivery services.
The Lloyd Levinson Institute of Gaming and Hospitality (LIGHT) School of Business at Stockton University and the Greater Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce presented a webinar Feb. 24 called “Destination Cannabis: Insight for New Jersey Hospitality and Tourism.”
The virtual event focused on recreational marijuana and its impact on resort destinations, opportunities for hospitality and tourism business, cannabis and agritourism, and food and beverage tourism.
Consumption lounges
Rob Mejia, an adjunct professor in cannabis studies at Stockton University and president of Our Community Harvest: A Cannabis Education Company, said people will not be able to partake of cannabis on federal lands, a public sidewalk or in federal housing but recreational marijuana use is permissible inside a private residence.
“Down the road, it looks like there will be consumption licenses,” he said. “There are a few consumption lounges in California and just a couple in Colorado, but essentially what it is will be a separate building or a building attached to a dispensary where people can buy product or actually bring product, go into the consumption lounge and partake.”
He said that offers an opportunity for the hospitality industry such as turning the consumption lounge into a mini restaurant with live music or comedy shows.
David Yusefzadeh, a Massachusetts-based chef and food designer and CEO/founder of Cloud Creamery, a cannabis ice cream company, said a private cannabis consumption club opened in his home state where participants cannot purchase product but can bring in as much as an ounce of cannabis.
Regulations in Massachusetts allow only packaged food in consumption lounges that do not contain cannabis, “stoner food” like Twinkies and Snickers, he said.
Brian Applegarth, chairman of the California Cannabis Tourism Association, said his state has about 20 to 30 consumption lounges of different types.
“As we innovate cannabis in the lens of adult use or recreational, we should always kind of toggle back and acknowledge that cannabis is really a tool for wellness and these kind of lounges can also have the personality of bringing people together that are maybe struggling with PTSD or using cannabis in a medically applicable way or wellness-driven way and it gives them a community to share that experience together and heal,” he said.
Education, wellness
Cintia Morales, co-founder and director of education and outreach of Higher Ed. Hemp Tours in Austin, Texas, said marijuana is not legal in the Lone Star State so her focus is on hemp.
“A lot of our participants that come to the tour are first-time participants in anything having to do with cannabis and I feel like it is really important for anybody that is experiencing something for the first time to have a guide, whether it be a tour guide or a medical person, or somebody that really knows the plant,” she said.
Education includes the type of products available to the amount of dosing to the uses of the plant, Morales said, adding that a number of her tour customers have traveled to states where recreational cannabis is legal.
Morales said 75 percent of her tour customers are new to hemp.
Applegarth partnered with MMGY Global, the world’s leading data-driven integrated travel and hospitality marketing agency, to conduct research identifying and understanding the cannabis-motivated traveler segment in the United States. He said 29 percent of the leisure travel audience in the U.S. are cannabis-motivated travelers.
“Which means they make their destination decisions based on the ability to access cannabis-related experiences,” Applegarth said.
The experiences include hemp massages, CBD massages, visiting a dispensary and “Cannabis 101 Education.” He said 30 percent of that travel audience has not tried cannabis.
“They’re really interested in wellness and how it improves quality of life and I really see this as the emerging trend, especially in travel for this audience, which really makes it accessible for destinations and hotels that often have these kind of anti-smoking policies to really start understanding that this audience is different,” Applegarth said.
Out of 10 different methods of ingestion, cannabis-motivated travelers prefer edibles, drinkables and topical applications over smoking or vaping, he said. Applegarth said 18 percent of all Americans are part of the cannabis-motivated travel market.
“They self-identify as foodies to a greater extent, almost 10 points higher than the average,” he said. “They are also very into nature.”
Applegarth said they ranked higher than the average leisure traveler as wine enthusiasts.
“I live in wine country and I love that data point because sometimes there is this misperception that this isn’t the same traveler and it really is,” he said.
Yusefzadeh said there is little real food in cannabis edibles in his area, mostly candy items. He said he has been talking to the federal government about aging cheese with cannabis.
“We’re trying to find foods for people that are going through autoimmune diseases that can fit into their everyday life, so they are not always eating a piece of candy, they are not always eating sugar with cannabis, they are not always feeling like it is medicine,” Yusefzadeh said.
He said he is trying to put together a cannabis resort in western Massachusetts or Vermont where people who wish to consume edibles can stay.
“We want them to stay at our resort, almost like an old-school bed and breakfast where we would cook for them, we would chat with them, they would have complete interactions with us and they also wouldn’t have to go anywhere afterward,” Yusefzadeh said. “They would be in their room, not have to drive, not have to operate anything.”
Applegarth said the lowest interest for the cannabis-motivated traveler is going on a party bus. He said cannabis, hemp and CBD are entering a new iteration in which they are more mainstream.
The number of CBD shops in Austin increased from four to 150 locations, including ice cream shops, restaurants and bars, Morales said.
Yusefzadeh said he has booked weekends in Nantucket or Martha’s Vineyard where 10 to 12 people get together for a cannabis brunch and a cannabis dinner.
“It’s tourism but it’s private,” he said. “They can kind of control their experience, pump the brakes if they need to or kind of open it up a little more if they want.”
Cannabis-motived travelers want outdoor experiences such as beachfront or farm dinners, Yusefzadeh said.
Mejia said combining yoga and cannabis classes is popular. In Colorado, a limousine service will pick up the traveler from the airport, explain the state regulations and what type of products are available, drive the customer to a dispensary and offer a tour of a grow facility or a class.
He said in Atlantic City, the casinos have a big challenge with a down-trending audience.
“Of course, I know they will be struggling with ‘what do we do with this?’” Mejia said. “Do we want this in the casino? Will it slow down play? Do we have to have smoking rooms?”
Some small casinos in Colorado formed partnerships with dispensaries that offered only coupons and education.
According to Amanda Hoover, of NJ.com, who moderated the event, Atlantic City has two medical marijuana dispensaries on the boardwalk, one open and one with a pending opening.
“In theory, these will be the first places likely that can switch to adult use and begin sales,” she said.
Mejia said when recreational marijuana dispensaries open, there is often a line four blocks long to enter on the first day but the traffic normalizes over time.
Applegarth said partnerships with the cannabis industry are important for destinations that have brands and strategic plans. A good partnership provides risk mitigation, he said.
“You want to know you’re sending your guests and your visitors to a place that is a good operator and that is going to give a service that reflects well in the destination,” he said.
Business opportunities
For existing businesses that want to get into the cannabis industry, a retail store does not have to manufacture or produce cannabis, just showcase local products, Yusefzadeh said. He said he has been trying to convince his chef friends who are unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic to work in the edible cannabis industry.
“The majority of the people producing edibles in the state of Massachusetts have zero food background,” Yusefzadeh said.
Independent companies are springing up to deliver product directly to consumers, he said.
“A lot of our customers aren’t necessarily the end user,” Yusefzadeh said. “We have 40- and 50-year-olds that are looking to purchase products for their parents.”
Morales said there is more involved than just opening a shop, noting that educating the public about cannabis is very important.
“A lot of people forget that consumer adoption is not there yet. There is still a lot of consumers that are scared of it, the stigma is still there,” she said.
Mejia said those wishing to enter the cannabis business should start with cannabis education. He said there are transferrable skills to the industry from just about any line of work.
The cannabis industry is supporting 311,000 full-time jobs across the nation. For municipalities that allow it, a cultivation or processing center would operate in a very secure brick or steel building, Mejia said.
“You can’t tell what’s in them, they look like any other building in town,” he said.
Despite the opening of dispensaries, a black market for marijuana likely will remain because it will be cheaper.
Yusefzadeh said cannabis in dispensaries is taxed and expensive. Hoover said the prices in the medical industry in New Jersey ae among the highest in the nation, averaging $350 to $500 per ounce.
Mejia said the product in dispensaries is tested and the potency is known.
Jane Bokunewicz, coordinator of LIGHT in the Business School at Stockton, said the school offers both a minor in cannabis studies for students and a cannabis certificate for the public through the Office of Continuing Studies.