This one is a simple idea that came up when I was visiting Cathlamet, Washington, population 553: Post your local hashtag where visitors will see it. The Cathlamet Chamber of Commerce does an awesome local photo contest. Most of the photo submissions come from locals. They use these on their annual events calendar and other…
Small town tourism groups and chambers of commerce often need information about their local tourism trends, but don’t have reliable sources of data. Statistics from the state are usually divided by county or only cover larger communities. The few stats you can get your hands on are usually well out of date. Turns out,…
Rural areas and small towns can tap the rising tourism trend of vacations from our phones. And new research shows ways to take advantage of the trend. Lots of rural areas already have poor cell phone reception and slow broadband, so we might as well take advantage of it, right? Philip Lovell Pearce and Li…
Next year, Kristina Vonberge’s town is going to face bridge construction and a major traffic detour. She asked for ideas during the discussion session of our SaveYour.Town webinar on the arts. People coming to town are going to have to detour 17 miles out of the way to get to town. How can she draw…
When I saw this news article, the light went on over my head! This is such a great fit for small towns to boost their tourism. Norfolk County, Ontario, is hosting the culinary industry at the Terroir Rural Retreat. It will be the day after the major Terroir Symposium held in big city Toronto, almost…
Your town probably has one: an empty church building. I’ve seen several converted to private homes, but I hadn’t seen one used as camping or lodging until this: champing, or camping in churches. ‘Champing’™ is the ultimate ‘slow tourism’ escape, with England’s historic churches offering their own unique havens of tranquility, a peaceful night’s sleep interrupted only…
Guest post by Deb Brown We had filmmakers from San Francisco in our town this month making a movie about us. They are telling the story of Webster City, Iowa, and how we’ve bounced back from the loss of a major manufacturer and the hundreds of jobs they took with them. It’s a big deal…
It’s a fad you’ll be hearing about everywhere. It’s all about comfort, coziness and connectedness. It’s the subject of a rush of new books. It’s a fad, and it won’t last forever. But it’s also connected to larger trends in society that are good for rural. If we can just figure out how to say it….
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