About Smallwander.com

Smallwander.com gathers small town cultural resources into a single database. Benefits include the following:For travelers:

• A collection of small towns that don’t look like every other place in America.
• Ability to search calendar of events, attractions, restaurants, and lodging.

For merchants/cultural organizations:

• Incentives for travelers seeking small town experiences to visit participating merchants.
• Increased publicity in media that value cultural tourism.

For towns:

• Ability to attract travelers from atypical regions (such as across state lines).
• A forum to share information and plan events among member towns.
• A piece of the cultural tourism pie, the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry.

I learned how the arts benefit tourism and contribute to a town’s economic vitality during my time as a volunteer for the Hillsborough Arts Council in North Carolina.

After seeing all the good things that were happening in my town that fostered cultural tourism, I made some short day-trips to nearby small towns to see what they were doing to attract visitors. I came away amazed at large number of interesting things that were going on in each of the towns. However, even though the towns I visited were within a 70 mile-driving radius of Hillsborough, I hadn’t heard a word about their great events and attractions because they were outside of publicity range.

Smallwander.com arose from the desire to help travelers find out about all the great things that are happening in nearby small towns. I also wanted to help small towns to work together to network and share information to plan new and unique events across regions. In today’s age, that means forming an interactive website, which would provide detailed information on where to go, what to do, and when to do it. Although travel directories exist, not many are database driven, many don’t break across regions, such as state lines, and few focus on the small-town experience.

In summary, Smallwander.com promotes tourism to small towns by:

• Promoting only those small towns that recognize the value of cultural tourism.
• Providing up-to-date, quality information for travelers seeking “Small Town Experiences.”
• Facilitating the flow of travelers among like-minded small towns.

I hope you enjoy these great small towns!

John Delconte Compass Communications, Inc., Hillsborough, NC