Community tourism development: an opportunity for park and recreation departments.

Economic conditions have prompted downsizing in corporations, private businesses and community services in many aspects of our society. To stay within the city budgets, many traditional services are being reduced or eliminated. Even those services that remain in place are forced to defend or justify their existence and often to become self supporting. Park and recreation personnel nationwide are threatened by decreasing funds and usually complain that their budget is one of the first to be cut

As community leaders struggle to bolster their local economies they are searching for economic and employment alternatives. Thousands of communities, and increasingly, park and recreation departments have begun to look at the potential of tourism as an economic development strategy and financial support base for their programs.

Community leaders usually recognize the responsibility and impact park and recreation departments have on the quality of life of their citizens. However, they may not recognize the economic potential of park and recreation departments in attracting industry, retirees and new business.

Many park and recreation departments are beginning to position themselves as a major component of the community economic development team. They can and should document the economic impact of their sport tournaments and special events, organized in the past as an integral part of an overall recreation program. Today, park and recreation departments need to recognize that regional and national sports tournaments are much more than necessary recreation programming.

These events bring visitors to communities and support the community's overall economic stability. In 1995, the Blue Springs (MO) Park and Recreation Department conducted research to measure the direct economic impact of a baseball tournament with teams from five states. They found that the tournament generated $244,366 in direct expenditures. These expenditures are obviously an economic boost for the area, but they also position the park and recreation department as an economic development asset and may go a long way in sustaining or increasing the department's budget.

Tourism projects, such as special events or sports tournaments, often begin with a goal of raising money for a special project. Examples include a town that held a fund raising festival to rebuild a fire-damaged historic building, or towns that have held festivals to show their heritage. Other goals may be educational, cultural, to honor a past event or person, or to promote community. As development progresses, specific objectives are refined and tourism begins to be seen as an economic development strategy that will potentially benefit all of the initial goals.

In addition to sports tournaments, many park and recreation departments sponsor bus trips for senior citizens, holiday celebrations and special events. Any of these projects could be expanded to attract visitors. Because park and recreation departments are skilled in recreation programming and have leadership teams and volunteers already in place, participating in a community tourism effort would be easy.

Although community tourism development embraces the idea that in addition to private enterprise development, the community can do some things to enhance its economy through tourism. A sustainable effort, however, requires organization, leadership, products and services, and marketing.

Organization

One of the most essential elements of tourism development is a formal organization. If development is anything other than an individual business effort, the organization must be representative of the community it will serve. Its structure is often informal as development efforts begin, but becomes more formal as the industry expands. There are numerous success stories associated with organizations such as chambers of commerce, convention and visitor bureaus and tourism associations (both local and regional). The organizational structure is not as critical as its function, which should follow a process acceptable to the community/area and should include developmental marketing and community educational strategies.

Leadership

Leadership is probably the key factor in the success of any tourism industry. As As one state tourism official said, "Our experience is that it really doesn't matter what assets you have if you don't have leadership." Often towns without traditional tourism assets have capitalized on what they had with visionary leadership. For example, one man in Duncan (TN) discovered some historic coke e ovens and got the townspeople excited about transforming the discovery into a park, as well as developing a museum and outdoor theater. The town supported him, with families adopting small flower gardens in the park and catering picnics for tour groups. Soon, tourism in that area flourished.

A single community may not have much that would attract tourists, but can create a tourist destination/attraction when linked with other communities in the area or region. As one state tourism director said, "For most communities the competition is not the next town down the road--it is, rather, the next state down the road." Out-of-state tourists are usually looking for a "package" of different experiences. Rather than competing with each other, golf resort owners in eastern Michigan chose to jointly advertise to the golfing market, enticing golfers to play a different course every day. The venture has been a great success.

Lodge owners in northern Minnesota--with the cooperation of the public sector--created the Gunflint Trail system for cross-country skiing, making the entire area much more attractive. Existing state and federal ski trails were linked with sections of private trails to create hundreds of miles of uninterrupted ski trails. Ski enthusiasts can ski for a week or more without ever traveling the same trail twice. They can also ski "lodge to lodge" and the lodge owners will transport their luggage. As a result, an area with a very short summer tourist season now has a greatly expanded winter season as well.

Products and Services

Tourism products include all the attractions, events and experiences that visitors anticipate; services include food, lodging, gasoline, and other supplies. Attractions bring visitors to a community while services make their stay more pleasant.

Individual attractions such as rivers, springs, caves, historic buildings, landmarks, and other natural and cultural features alone will not bring tourism or economic benefits to a community. A critical mass of attractions, however, will hold visitors in a community long enough for them to have an economic impact through food and lodging, retail purchases and entrance fees.

Marketing

Community tourism marketing is everything the community does in the sale or rental of a product or service. It includes--among other things--community beautification, infrastructure development, product development, hospitality, positioning, advertising, personal sales, sales promotions, and public relations. All of this marketing should include both internal and external efforts. Internally the community needs to be aware of area attractions and services and act hospitable to guests. Community members also need to be aware of the value of tourism to the community.

Development Options

There are a number of development options. Communities can set goals to become a destination, pass-through or day-use area--or a combination of the above. A destination area provides the greatest economic benefit because people stay in the community and use a variety of services such as food, lodging, shopping, etc. These areas, however, require more attractions and services. To become a pass-through tourism area, a community must provide a variety of convenient services or attractions, and develop a communications strategy to convince travelers to stop there. Day-use tourism areas do not need a large service base because most visitors will not want lodging facilities or restaurants. One of the fastest growing tourism strategies is to utilize special events, festivals and fairs as day-use attractions.

A Tourism Development Process

Tourism development and community planners suggest that the first step in the tourism development process is to understand a community's situation. Knowing factors such as community attitudes, attractions and services, quality and capacity of the infrastructure, and nearby markets is essential to planning. This information is most useful when gathered in the assessment phase of planning. Assessment also includes an inventory of area attractions, services and human resources.

Tourism Development Areas

An analysis of the inventory information should give some indication of the areas with the greatest potential for tourism development. Communities have traditionally developed tourism by capitalizing on:

1. Natural features such as lakes, mountains, streams and caves. This category of potential attractions is gaining momentum through programming and interpretation and is often referred to as eco-tourism.

2. Cultural and ethnic attractions such as antiques, art galleries, ethnic celebrations, unique lifestyles; these types of attractions are often promoted as heritage tourism.

3. Created events such as fairs, festivals, rodeos, tournaments, and recreation programming may utilize one or more of the previously mentioned categories as the theme.

Fortunately, park and recreation departments are often already providing leadership in these created events.

4. Historic attractions such as battlefields, famous buildings, landmarks, and sites of famous events.

5. Man-made attractions such as covered bridges, dams, shopping centers, and parks.

After the assessment and analysis phase, the community should identify their tourism goals and objectives. The next step is to identify community strategies to meet the identified goals and objectives. The plan is now ready to be implemented and evaluated as development evolves.

Obviously, this overview over simplifies the community tourism development process. There is a large body of knowledge on the process. Since each community will have its own individual preferences, they are advised to research both theory and case studies before creating a long-term development plan.

Whether or not a community makes a commitment to pursue tourism development does not prevent the local park and recreation department from documenting the economic impact of the events and programs it sponsors and positioning itself as an essential component of the community economic development strategy.