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State Plans to Fulfill National Strategy

One of the purposes of the 20005 Cultural & Heritage Tourism Summit was to serve as a catalyst for state, local, tribal, and national action in fulfilling the national strategy presented in the Position Paper on Cultural and Heritage Tourism in the United States and encapsulated in the declaration of actions and opportunities. The 50 state delegations, as well as those from the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands met in caucus to formulate feasible and effective responses to the eight issue areas in the white paper, to their identified strength and weaknesses and to what they learned at the Summit.

The results so far indicate a broad range of actions across all the issue areas in the position paper. They also indicate a rich resource for all states to draw on in developing strategic plans for their cultural and heritage tourism industry. Outlined below are the actions identified by the state delegations, which are grouped generally according the issue areas in the position paper and by other consensus categories. Each delegation has been encouraged to convene a representative group of stakeholders to carry these actions forward.

Communication/Outreach

• “Revolutionize” the Governor’s Conference to includes arts, cultural, heritage organizations in both programming and attendance
• Reinvigorate Governor’s Conference for research and educational training
• Encourage Governor to concentrate on cultural and heritage tourism at next Governor’s Conference
• Resurrect awards programming that would be expanded to include cultural and heritage tourism entities
• Convene cultural and heritage tourism agencies
• Work with state university to create cultural and heritage tourism conference
• Develop better communications for regional meetings
• Reinstate cultural and heritage tourism summit at state level
• Get arts/heritage organizations to hold bi-annual meetings with tourism related organizations
• Build audience for hosting a cultural and heritage tourism summit
• Add cultural and heritage tourism sessions to annual Governor’s Conference on Tourism
• Host a cultural and heritage tourism conference and encourage the participation of the private sector
• Convene a cultural and heritage tourism meeting in partnership with the Humanities Council
• Create an executive summary of this Summit to share throughout the state
• Create cultural and heritage tourism action steps at next Governor’s Conference
• Encourage creation of a single “location” where all pertinent information on cultural and heritage tourism can be sourced
• Meet with arts, travel, association and council directors to share Summit results
• “Blow up” and restart communications strategy/network statewide
• Build stronger network of cultural and heritage tourism enthusiasts throughout the state
• Create more formal cultural and heritage tourism network/communications

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

• Prioritize cultural and heritage tourism assets for inventory and focus
• Focus on African American travel by expanding African American trail development, encourage participation by cultural and heritage tourism leaders
• Develop cultural and heritage tourism trails
• Develop rural tourism programming that integrates the arts, cultural and heritage components
• Expand Lewis & Clark trails to showcase cultural and heritage tourism
• Expand “trails” program
• Better organize cultural and heritage tourism assets to market and promote
• Challenge the private sector to help develop cultural and heritage tourism programming
• Develop multi-state cultural and heritage tourism trails
• Survey all cultural and heritage tourism assets to create an inventory resource
• Expand local festival schedules
• Develop a smorgasbord of cultural and heritage tourism opportunities for travelers to select
• Develop a cultural and heritage tourism attraction to showcase within the state
• Develop Civil War and Underground Railroad trails
• Develop fairs and festivals materials
• Increase product development in cultural and heritage tourism
• Establish statewide archaeology centers around the state
• Expand interstate and international programming

EDUCATION

• Develop an arts council/state tourism office training session to cross-train practitioners
• Identify “best practices” and local examples to expand product development of cultural and heritage tourism products
• Develop a strategic understanding of cultural and heritage tourism for all “silos”
• Develop a customer-centric focus and shepherd industry toward that customer-driven goal
• Hold workshops on cultural and heritage tourism in Spring ‘06
• Continue to work to knock down barriers among all agencies
• Get architecture and other “specialty” schools involved in cultural and heritage tourism planning and development
• Develop product marketing tools
• Add “culture host” component to hospitality training program
• Send “tourism folks” to arts meetings and municipal meetings

PROMOTION

• Focus on marketing to reunion groups and family gatherings
• Promote cultural and heritage tourism itineraries
• Identify new markets with cultural and heritage tourism product; develop packages for marketing/direct selling
• Design, develop and implement a cultural and heritage tourism marketing plan
• Work with state tourism office to write a collaborative marketing plan that includes all industry segments
• Coordinate local cultural and heritage entities into broader tourism messaging
• Incorporate cultural and heritage in tourism marketing mix
• Continue to develop and implement cultural, heritage, history components on-line on state’s website
• Develop marketing plan for cultural and heritage tourism products
• Expand visitor interest in cultural and heritage sites
• Develop a single message for all “silos” to use for promotion/marketing
• Build more cooperative efforts with arts, historic, cultural organizations for broader marketing reach
• Cooperate with other states to highlight cultural and heritage tourism
• Work with media/PR organizations to get the word out about cultural and heritage tourism

INFRASTRUCTURE AND PARTNERSHIPS

• Hire a cultural heritage tourism coordinator/manager to put emphasis on cultural and heritage tourism in the state
• Provide all travel and tourism industry entities with greater access on the state’s Internet site
• Improve visitor/way-finding signage throughout the state
• Assess state’s designations of cultural and heritage tourism entities; get each county to identify what they would like to do to further develop, better promote, etc.
• Hold a statewide meeting of arts and cultural entities focusing on development of a database of travel and arts-related inventories
• Develop a systematic inventory of cultural and heritage tourism resources statewide
• Enhance local initiatives
• Strengthen collaboration of cultural and heritage tourism groups to form a cultural and heritage tourism alliance
• Form a cultural and heritage tourism alliance
• Look for creative, but stable, funding for cultural and heritage tourism programming and entities
• Increase public stewardship of cultural and heritage tourism resources, and increase appropriate signage
• Provide money and technical support for local cultural and heritage tourism sites
• Consider regional collaboration across states for broader participation by cultural, heritage and tourism entities
• Dedicate funding year ‘round for cultural and heritage tourism events
• Develop statewide cultural and heritage tourism alliance/task force/organization/committee
• Seek cross agency dialog/agreement on how state agencies can help at the local level
• Expand the state’s interagency tourism council
• Enhance connections among tourism partners
• Identify and develop a cultural heritage tourism partners group to unify and propel cultural and heritage tourism in the state

SUSTAINABILITY

• Work on cultural and heritage tourism development among regions
• Develop public/private leadership team to help move cultural and heritage tourism initiatives forward
• Improve access to resources
• Broaden and strengthen reach of state tourism office and regional entities to/with cultural and heritage entities and vice versa
• Promote action-based partnership among state and local cultural, heritage and tourism entities
• Develop partnerships with state and local entities to include cultural and heritage organizations in tourism-related work

PLANNING

• Build on state cultural and heritage tourism summit by convening regional meetings
• Continue Summit discussions and create state white papers on cultural and heritage tourism
• Develop an integrated statewide cultural and heritage tourism plan
• Pull together all agencies across the state for more cohesive strategic planning
• Develop a statewide plan with objectives and action items to advance cultural and heritage tourism
• Review current process of tourism marketing and delivery to ensure best use of funds/effort
• Ensure specific action steps on new heritage plan

PUBLIC POLICY

• Support the state’s plan on creative economy
• Maintain partnerships for cultural and heritage tourism in order to have a unified plan in place by 2007
• Work with state travel council, CVBs, and Commissioner of Cultural Resources to expand integration of efforts between cultural/heritage and tourism
• Centralize organizations for one budget for cultural and heritage tourism organizations
• Separate cultural and heritage from the state plan in order to have this segment highlighted
• Establish cultural and heritage tourism as a priority in the state
• Broaden statewide travel industry association to include a working group of arts and cultural organizations
• Inform state’s cultural, heritage and travel and tourism industry about the outcomes of the Summit
• Work with local and state elected officials to get them better educated about cultural and heritage tourism
• Provide cultural and heritage tourism materials and information for governor and governor’s staff
• Educate the state’s decision makers about cultural and heritage tourism and its importance in the economic development of the state
• Work to gain/increase financial support for cultural and heritage tourism sector from state legislators
• Host a familiarization tour for legislators to introduce them to the cultural and heritage tourism inventory in the area
• Adopt a legislator and educate them about all things related to cultural and heritage tourism
• Organize an advocacy initiative
• Pass a resolution to focus on specific regions that have been identified as cultural and heritage “great places”
• Ask Governor to create a statewide advocacy committee on cultural and heritage tourism
• Write a position paper for local economic development agencies to use to educate legislators (and others) on the monetary value of cultural and heritage tourism
• Partner with division of tourism and economic development office to advocate for cultural and heritage tourism with local and state officials
• Support state business council in getting a creative economy model put before the state legislature
• Report to Governor and raise awareness of cultural and heritage tourism in policy and improvements needed in state (i.e. signage)
• Reporting Summit findings to Governor’s office and to state’s Congressional delegation

RESEARCH

• Further research of economic impact of cultural and heritage tourism on state’s economy
• Document return on investment (ROI) of cultural and heritage tourism entities to support continued financial investment by state
• Develop more accurate return on investment (ROI) of cultural and heritage tourism organizations
• Further develop awareness of the cultural and heritage tourism product, and implement stronger research programs to provide measurement of this industry segment
• Further the development of the cluster model currently underway