programming; hospitality training; asset mapping and development; tourism strategy assessment and planning; downtown development; opportunities related to COVID and increased outdoor recreation including ecosystem/natural resources impact and management strategy, user data collection, and natural resource development; craft and wine beverage trails; expansion of farm tours and visits; farm business management support; farm stay/ glamping industry; social media and marketing for agritourism; farm to table culinary initiatives, ecotourism, cultural heritage tourism, and a way to connect more fluidly with other tourism entities (ie; chamber, tourism promotion authority). However, significant challenges to program expansion were identified. Lacking capacity (personnel) and certain expertise was the most common challenge identified in the northeast followed by funding and resources to support staff/faculty time. Other challenges identified include lack of supporting infrastructure, recognition from the university that tourism should be a priority, existing tourism related programs not coordinated or marketed as tourism programming, regulations and liability, and state leadership working in areas without coordinated effort. The NERCRD has supported and encouraged multi-state teams to collaborate and share programs across state lines through a small- grants program. In 2015-2016, it funded a collaboration led by West Virginia University Extension Specialists involving the transfer of scholarly innovations of the First Impressions Program through a combination of train- the-trainer educational swaps and pilot
programming among the states of West Virginia, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire in the Northeast region, and Michigan and Minnesota in the North Central region. The program resulted in webinars and manuals for use in delivering the First Impressions program, multiple regional and national conference presentations, a published manuscript, and program adoption in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Michigan. According to a FIT Successes Report (2021) published by Michigan State University Extension Service, the First Impressions Tourism program has proven to be the catalyst needed to launch and expand small town tourism across Michigan. New Hampshire adopted the program to new technology using smartphone apps and Connecticut created the Community & Innovation District Assessment & Improvement program. New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania and West Virginia have a high level of interest in expansion of programming with leadership positions on the NET Design Team. The University of New Hampshire Extension Service recently added two new positions with a focus on tourism development. With support from the NERCRD, Extension faculty/staff in these states are currently collaborating on a NIFA AFRI grant to develop a national model for destination management research and programming in addition to a Hatch integrated rural tourism proposal. This demonstrates the potential for multi-state partnerships to “share” expertise among states and potentially overcome some of these challenges through collaboration and program sharing. —Doug Arbogast, West Virginia University
6 Extension Tourism: Impact and Opportunities of Land- and Sea-Grant Programming
extensiontourism.net
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