TED:
Tourism Economic Development
A Community-County Approach to Tourism
Development
Roger Merchant, Extension Educator
University of Maine Cooperative Extension
February 2004
I. Purpose:
This paper provides a brief overview of rural tourism. Communities
and their home county can gain social, economic and environmental
benefit from planned, locally managed strategies for tourism development.
Tourism in Maine has largely been about "marketing tourism opportunities
to those outside the state”. Marketing is an important tourism
function. However, marketing and development are not the same; they
look in different directions. Marketing looks outside the state; development
looks at tourism assets within regions, county and communities.
Tourism Economic Development (TED) is a community-county based tourism
model that builds upon three inter-connected parts: tourism assets,
community development, businesses and entrepreneurs.
II. TED-Tourism Economic Development:
TED is an asset-based approach to Tourism Economic Development. Through
organization, fact finding, analysis, public dialogue and decision-making
a community discovers and directs tourism activities and outcomes
in three arenas: assets, community, and entrepreneurs. Because TED
is community based, it puts the community and home county in the driver’s
seat for tourism development.
III. TED: The 3 Inter-Connected Parts
ASSETS: Tourism assets are features, sites, events,
and locations having value and potential interest for community,
visitors and tourists. Major asset categories include:
- Nature exploration and environmental education
- Local cultural heritage and community life
- Sustainable forests and forest heritage
- Trails by land and by water
- Outdoor recreation, motorized and non-motorized
- American Indians, ethnic origins
- Fishing, hunting, photography
- Agriculture and open space
- Scenic vistas and viewsheds
- Industry, past and present
- Artisans and storytellers
- Unique events and celebrations,
- Community, county and state owned parks and lands
- Conservation-based lands and land trusts
An asset inventory is foundation building work for a community. Existing
comprehensive plans provide a documented starting point for a community.
Each tourism asset should be evaluated for strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats. This is best carried out by a community
based-tourism organization with support from outside agencies.
COMMUNITY: With assets inventoried and evaluated,
a community should discuss quality of life values and limits to development.
Core values guide community decisions about developable options. With
agreement about assets and values, a community defines participation
with tourism opportunities. In other words, they define what they
wish to share and market to visitors, as well as what to not share-not
market.
This work deepens relationships and informs community about the organized
capacity needed to develop, market, manage and protect tourism assets.
Local capacity needs to be linked to county and regional networks.
Community and county approaches to the development and stewardship
of tourism assets assures important local outcomes:
- high quality visitor experiences and customer service
- increased likelihood of repeat visitors, new referrals
- tourism asset management and protection for sustainability
- local commitment and investment in tourism infrastructure
- local governance of tourism, linked to county and region
Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs: An expanded scope
of tourism assets has implications for small, micro, and home-based
business. Many local businesses see themselves as mostly serving customers
living in the community. More often, they don't see their business
as “tourism based”. The TED approach expands this view.
With support from business and economic development agencies, a community
can anticipate opportunities for small business expansion. These possibilities
connect to the tourism asset-opportunities that a community and county
is willing to share, develop and market. A community should strive
to create an “entrepreneur friendly” climate.
VI. TED, Community and County Connections:
In interior Maine, no one town in any county has all the tourism assets
of enough strength to play as “a big tourism destination draw”.
Granted, some towns have more assets than others may, and some may
have less. But, none has the asset base of say Acadia National Park
- Bar Harbor - Ellsworth.
This is fine for many rural folks who remark, “tourism, wait
a minute, not like Bar Harbor, this is not what we wish to become.”
This underscores why it is very important that rural communities address
quality of life values, and how they wish to participate with tourism.
What is the community-county connection? Look
at any rural county as a cluster of dispersed towns, each with unique
tourism assets. Next, link these community assets into a pool of
county-based tourism assets; this is the community-county connection…When
communities across a county discuss and decide about pooling assets,
this creates a “shared base of community and county tourism
assets”. Nature, forest heritage and recreation assets in
the unorganized townships of interior Maine counties should be considered
a part of this shared assets base.
Shared assets, community and county, create a more interesting
base of visitor experiences, providing more with options for exploring
many environments and communities. With diligent attention to effective
marketing strategies and high quality visitor experiences, local
businesses, communities and the home county can begin to benefit
from planned tourism economic development.
TED Implications: When you consider the TED approach to
tourism, the planning implications are clear. It is for the long
haul, and not a 'here today and gone tomorrow' proposition. TED
requires commitment, investment in organization, collaboration,
communication, grant making, coordination, infrastructure development,
human resources, ongoing management and evaluation.
V. THE KEY IDEA:
The three inter-connected parts of TED provide a framework for community
and county based tourism development. The direction of tourism activities
in this approach puts communities and counties in the driver’s
seat through planned approaches to tourism economic development. Partnership
and collaboration are key organizing principals that contribute to
the success of TED. Conscious stewardship of tourism assets contributes
to the sustainability of community-based tourism opportunities.
For further information, contact:
Roger Merchant, Extension Educator
Natural Resources, Community and Tourism Development
University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Piscataquis County Office
165 East Main Street
Dover-Foxcroft, Maine 04426
207-564-3301
rogerm@umext.maine.edu
|
