Take your locals on a local tour

Last week, two local tours caught my eye. No, not local as in “my town,” local as in “taking your local people to see what’s local.”

Hamilton County, Indiana, was taking their tourism staff out for a tour:

Some of our staff is touring the county today to get acquainted w/ Hamilton Co.’s history! What are your fave historical attractions here?

— Hamilton County CVB (@8GreatTowns) June 6, 2013

For tourism staff, imagine how much more they can say about local attractions when they’ve just been there. Imagine how much better they can do in social media interactions with the history fresh on their minds.

And Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada (where I spoke in January), was taking their entire economic development team around: Planners, Building Inspectors, EDOs, Heritage & Culture, Bylaw. 

Tour guide Chris Baird leads us across #norfolkcounty today checking out latest development twitter.com/investnorfolk/…— NorfolkCounty EcDev (@investnorfolk) June 6, 2013

I suggested they follow up with a tour for their local media, educators, business owners, or bankers. They play a big part in economic development, too.

Remember:

• Locals suffer from “never been there” syndrome. They may live right next to an attraction, but they’ve never been there.
• Things change. Who ever told you small towns never change was lying. Small towns change, and pace of change is faster than ever. I’ll bet even you would be surprised what’s changed in your small town in just the past five years.

What locals will you take on your next local tour?

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