by Joanne Steele on March 11, 2010
Old fashioned fast food at Cloverdale's landmark, Pick's Drivein
I normally devote my Thursday blog post to marketing tips, but another story about one of Budget Travel’s Coolest Small Towns was in my Google Alerts today, and I have to pass it on.
Small town and rural communities overcome threats and downturns all the time.
Small towns lose their grocery stores and doctors’ offices.
Our kids move away and can’t find a way to come back.
Recessions and economic downturns hit small towns harder and longer than urban centers.
Small towns spend lots of time squabbling like families about whether tourism is good or bad and whether we want a McDonald’s or a WalMart.
But when we small town residents set our minds to something, things get done.
Cloverdale is typical. It is located in one of California’s most trendy and popular counties, Sonoma. Sister cities in the county include Healdsburg, Santa Rosa, Bodega Bay and more, all trendy, quaint and stuffed with visitors.
Cloverdale, a town with an inferiority complex anyway took a big hit when the highway bypassed it in the 90’s.
Did it die? Did it fold up its sidewalks and become less than its residents wanted and deserved. NO!
It rebuilt and redesigned its downtown, for the locals. It attracted a thriving arts community.
It holds regular events that locals take pride in and visitors are invited to.
A quote by a seven-year resident from the Press Democrat article about their Budget Travel nomination says, “It’s not a town designed for the tourist trade, but designed for a small town atmosphere where you walk down the street and everybody knows everybody.”
Take heart everyone who is struggling. Our problems seem huge, but the great thing about small towns is that those problems are still small enough that together we can get our arms around them and solve them.
If you missed it, here’s my first soapbox sermon on how to be the greatest small town.
Please, tell me about your great small town and how you have overcome your own problems.
by Joanne Steele on March 9, 2010
I’m going to British Columbia again this spring to present at BC’s first Conference on Rural Tourism.
The conference will be held near Chase – too far to visit one of my all time favorite rural tourism destinations, Revelstoke, B.C.. But hey, maybe I’ll find another fav on my way up and back.
The conference is sponsored by Thompson Rivers University School of Tourism, and the list of presenters is pretty impressive.
Any readers in the rural regions of Washington and Oregon are close enough to drive, to take advantage of this opportunity.
Who can resist the draw of British Columbia! Their magnificent advertising during the Winter Olympics had me packing my bags in the middle of February. Heck! Everyone should fly into Kamloops or Kelowna and join us!
The thing I’m delighted to see is the good mix of hands-on learning opportunities for rural destinations with a promise that you’ll go home with skills you can immediately implement.
Thompson Rivers U’s School of Tourism has been responsible for an excellent series of studies of rural tourism issues they call the Tourism Research Innovation Project. I’m always pleased to see attention given to understanding the differences between rural and urban tourism.
We’re just not the same, and our needs are not the same. It amuses me that worldwide, states, provinces and countries use images of their rural beauty to market travel to their urban tourism centers!
In rural areas, the businesses that serve visitors support families not corporations.
In rural areas, a few hundred visitors a month can mean the difference between poverty and new found prosperity for a whole community.
In rural areas, sustainability and stewardship is about the environment we actually live in.
When you read about the Thompson Rivers University TRIP project you learn that they truly understand this.
And when you read who will be presenting at this great conference, you’ll see opportunities to expand your understanding of the craft, value and opportunity of rural tourism as well as gaining some new valuable skills.
I’ll be talking about Explorer Tourism and the work of the Kansas Sampler Foundation in Kansas, US. Everyone should know about the great work for rural communities that Marci Penner is doing, and I’m making it my personal mission to make that happen.
Are there any good rural tourism conferences happening in your corner of the world this year?
