Tag: tourism

The Rural Tourism Institute: Leveraging Land-Grant Universities to Support Sustainable Rural Tourism Development in Appalachia

October 2, 2024

This project is funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and led by Doug Arbogast, Rural Tourism Development Extension Specialist at West Virginia University. The project team includes collaborators from North Carolina State Extension Tourism, the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky, the Northeast and Southern Regional Rural Development Centers, prominent tourism industry consultants, and community partners across three Appalachian states.

The project team will use the funds to plan the development of the Rural Tourism Institute, which will comprise three components:

• the Rural Tourism Academy, which will develop the industry’s first Rural Tourism Executive Certification program;
• the Rural Tourism Lab, which will leverage academic faculty and students to fill critical data and intelligence gaps and provide planning and research support; and,
• the Rural Tourism Peer Network, which will provide facilitated networking and information sharing among practitioners.

During the 12-month planning grant, the team will work together to outline curriculum development for the certification training program and delineate research activities for the lab. Tourism authorities from at least two counties in each state will participate as active partners in training, research and networking. Funding was made via ARC’s Appalachian Regional Initiative for Stronger Economies (ARISE), which aims to drive large-scale, regional economic transformation through multi-state collaborative projects across Appalachia.

Download the project snapshot here.

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Craft Beverage Trail Collaborations in Pennsylvania

June 12, 2021

Pennsylvania is second in the nation when it comes to the amount of craft beer produced, and the number of breweries in Pennsylvania has increased steadily since 2010. Most of these engage in some form of beer tourism, and doing so can enhance local and regional tourism by offering brewery events on site, attending craft beverage/ale/local festivals, participating in craft beverage trails, and being part of brewery bus tours. These activities are often developed in collaboration with destination marketing organizations to attract more tourists to an area.

With funding from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, a team of Penn State Extension researchers led by Claudia Schmidt conducted a study to gain a better understanding of these collaborations. They selected six beer trails across the commonwealth and interviewed their managers/administrators about how their trails began, gamification components (passports and memberships), the challenges they encountered and what recommendations they might have for others who would like to establish a trail in their county.

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