Almost every time I talk about Shop Local campaigns, someone will mention that they can’t do one because it will offend their tourists and visitors. I think your visitors are more savvy than you give them credit for. Let’s start with travel writer Sheila Scarborough. She and I do some work together at Tourism Currents….
Is your small town ready for the explorers? Travel expert Wendy Perrin presented these changing travel motivations from the Condé Nast Traveler Research Center at an event in Australia. I had to share them with you. THEN: Planned “cultural experiences” NOW: Local immersion In small towns, visitors can dive into local events and experiences. Help them with…
At the 2010 Oklahoma Entrepreneurs Conference, a panel of communities shared how they had become more entrepreneurial. Artists are entrepreneurs, too, and Mangum, Oklahoma, is home to several arts businesses. “If you count every man, woman, child and chicken, we have 2500,” Maxine Thomason said. She was the Mayor of Mangum, a former program manager…
I spent half an hour on the phone with a young man who is volunteering to help his community reach more visitors. It’s a town of around 1,000 people, with many of the same challenges other towns of all sizes face. The old guard folks just don’t get it yet, and he wants to find a…
When promoting your small town tourism, one essential element is getting your local businesses online where your visitors can find them. But most of your small town businesses either have no website, or a website they don’t maintain, or a website that isn’t mobile-friendly. Rather than fight with all the local businesses about getting and…
Visitors don’t want to LOOK, they want to DO. People are looking for things to do, not just things to look at, tourism expert Roger Brooks said. That’s why it’s so hard to market your history in tourism. You have to find ways to make people involved in the experience of that history. Visit Indiana…
Each week, I publish a newsletter with a positive view of rural. Recently, I featured the idea of giving your small town a dash of color. Keith Snyder of Lincoln, Illinois, replied with some great news about how his town is letting their color and creativity out. Lots of ideas you can use here….
Now that most cell phones can access the internet, you might think that wifi access doesn’t matter for tourism. And no one would want to work while on vacation, right? Well, more than ever, wifi and work spaces are important to local tourism strategies, especially in small towns. Let’s start with this key point: Your…
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