Rural and small town tourism is all about experiences. That is why you should steal this idea for your local tourism: Meet the locals in Jamaica. [There are] about 300 ambassadors who volunteer with the Jamaica Tourist Board’s Meet the People program. Launched nearly 41 years ago, it arranges meetings between visitors and residents, basing…
Many small towns have un-used space in their downtown. A local resident in Buffalo, Oklahoma, has used some of that space to create short-term lodging for hunters. Julia Hinther runs a salon and gift shop. The space upstairs used to be an apartment for her sons. When one of her sons tried his luck with…
Erratic or limited hours are a frequent complaint about small town businesses. But how can you convince small business owners to expand their hours? My friend Charles French sent me this very neat tool: “while you were out” notes for businesses. Here’s how it works. Customers use them to let businesses know when and how…
I hope our 4 ways to jumpstart your small biz in 2010 post helped lots of you get going with 2010. The National Federation of Independent Business liked it enough to ask me to do a webinar based on it. I’ve agreed, and it will be Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 12pm Eastern Time. I’m also…
In addition to everything we talk about here, I publish an occasional newsletter with extra bonus material. It’s intended to be the sort of thing you can pass along to other small businesses in your town, or maybe someone like your chamber of commerce folks. Although the newsletter has been inactive for quite a while,…
Yesterday, I walked the small town of Okeene, Oklahoma, through a process to help them expand their tourism potential. We used the 8 Rural Culture Elements from Kansas Sampler Foundation. I wanted to share some of the discussion with you, in hopes it will encourage you to take a fresh look at your local tourism…
Our friend Denise McGill, author of the “Writing Tips for Small Business Owners” booklet, asked about using social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon and Delicious to promote her works online. Here’s a very quick introduction. StumbleUpon aims to help people discover neat things online that they otherwise might not. Delicious allows you to bookmark favorite items…
Mike Knutson is someone you should meet. He believes small, rural communities need to “Reimagine” their futures. At “ReImagine Rural” (www.ReImagineRural.com) he and others attempt to inspire rural residents to look at the futures of their communities differently and to base their community development efforts on innovative, transformative ideas. I think I favorite or share…
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