Avoid the "Geography of Nowhere"

Lisa Brochu, author and tourism consultant, and keynote speaker at the recent Heartland Byways Conference in Kansas, encouraged communities located along scenic byways to be distinct and present their innate character, writes Dale Hogg of the Grand Bend Tribune. When a visitor wakes up in the morning they should know where they are. As Lisa Brochu states, avoid the geography of nowhere.

The Annual Heartland Byways Conference is designed for byway, tourism officials from 10-state region, including: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Nebraska.
Link to: America`s Byways
...
Roger Brooks' Rule No. 16
Great Stories Make the Campfire Memorable: the rule of telling stories.
Your community has stories to tell. They are distinct. They bring people together. They attract visitors.
 from "The 25 Immutable Rules of Successful Tourism"
Tip 2 from Roger Brooks.

The International Ecotourism Society now 20 years old

 

The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) now celebrates its 20th year. TIES "promotes responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people".
TIES' global Ecotourism Explorer map geographically links us to various ecotourism resources: travellers, students, professionals, lodging facilities, tour operators, affiliated businesses.colleges and universities, institutions, and non-government organizations. A search, for example, of Canadian members with connection to Geographic Information Systems (GIS), displayed the Great Bear Nature Tours in Port Hardy, British Columbia.
TIES joins 500 businesses, professionals and community members at ESTC (Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference) 2010 from 8-10Sep2010 in Portland Oregon. The conference is hosted by Travel Portland and Travel Oregon, and will provide opportunities to share the latest trends in ecotourism and sustainable tourism.

British Columbia's first rural tourism conference

Conference: Rural Tourism

Dates: 6-8 April 2010

Host: British Columbia’s Thompson Rivers University School of Tourism and partners
Program: PDF document link
Location: rural North Shuswap, Talking Rock Resort and Quaaout Lodge

Theme: Address the challenges of selecting and building tourism experiences by all rural tourism stakeholders.

Rural RoundUp returns to Winnemucca

Winnemucca (cowboy country) celebrated Nevada's 20th annual Rural RoundUp 24-26th March 2010 and hosted the State's Rural Tourism Conference. Nevada Lt. Gov. Brian K. Krolicki says it's "one time each year [rural tourism stakeholders] can learn new tactics to market their areas or events". The event is marketed to an international audience.

Speaker Roger Brooks, with Destination Development held an educational session on “The New Age of Rural Tourism”. He spoke about attracting new business, new residents and increased tourism spending, about what rural communities have done, and are doing, to put themselves "on the map" and on the road to long term success.

Travel advertising specialist with Google, Ryan Denny, spoke about the "Top 10 Wins" on on-line advertising, measuring success, and your Website.