A Strategy for Attracting Tourists to Small Towns

The next Smallwander phone/webinar guest will be Tom Magnuson, President of the Trading Path Association. Tom will talk with us about how trails and other historical infrastructure can be used as a tool to attract tourists to small towns.

EVENT:  A Strategy for Attracting Tourists to Small Towns
DATE & TIME: Monday, April 28th at 10:00am Eastern
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW…
http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=2696430

Virginia Tourism Summit

I’m off to the 2008 Virginia Tourism Summit next week in Charlottesville, VA from April 22 to 23.  I hope to meet representatives from great small towns while I’m there and introduce them to smallwander.com.

Preserving Small Towns

Check out Preserving Small Towns. Bill Lofquist is Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York (SUNY) Geneseo, a member of the Geneseo Village Board and a leader of Please Don’t Destroy Geneseo. Geneseo is a beautiful town in the Finger Lake region of New York.  Of course, I’m biased, having grown up in Albany. Here’s a great post on the full value of main street.

Trips to nearby places

With the rising price of gas, vacationers might decide to take a trip closer to home this year. Perhaps a they might like to visit a nearby small town, spending a few days in each town, while taking a circular route back home. Just a thought…

From the North Carolina Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development:

ENERGY DEPT. EXPECTS SUMMER GASOLINE DEMAND TO FALL

U.S. summer gasoline demand will shrink for the first time since 1991 as skyrocketing pump prices and the wider economic malaise hit holiday plans, the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecast Tuesday. With some regions of the U.S. seen facing the shock of $4.00 a gallon gasoline this summer, fuel demand could contract 0.4% from 2007 as U.S. cars and gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles spend more time in driveways. Retail gas prices will peak near $3.60 a gallon in June, but prices at such lofty levels will make many Americans think twice about hitting the road this summer, the Energy Department said. To find out more, visit here and here.

Tracking by the Division of Tourism reveals that the average price per gallon of gas in North Carolina has increased 3.2 percent from one month ago and 20.7 percent from one year ago. In the metro regions of Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Asheville, Fayetteville, Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, today (Wednesday) marks the highest recorded price for regular unleaded gasoline.

Nationally, the average price increased 3.8 percent from one month ago and 19.7 percent from one year ago. To find out more, visit here.

“Staycations” – Getting Away Without Going Away – Travel trend watchers said they are seeing a rise in the number of Americans opting for stay-at-home vacations, or “staycations,” and people who are either canceling their travel plans, postponing them till later in the year or opting to take fewer, shorter trips. For some families, it’s a matter of figuring out which trips are necessary – and which ones don’t fit into the budget. For others, financial concerns mean changing warm-weather traditions altogether. Though overarching economic concerns are also affecting travel plans, the increased cost of gasoline is cited by many as a key reason for scaling back. To find out more, visit here.