Down home tourism.

The notion of the "family vacation" still conjures images of packing the kids in the minivan and driving across the country to such traditional destinations as Niagara Falls, Disneyland or the Grand Canyon.

But more and more travelers are sticking closer to home and taking shorter visits to a new variety of places--an old fort, a farm, a Renaissance fair or a folk festival. Cultural events (art museums, ballet, symphony orchestras) have long attracted tourists to cities. But many towns are discovering that less sophisticated cultural events, like folk dances, craft fairs, town festivals and even images of the wild, wild West, often draw visitors as well.

These cultural tourists are prized visitors. They spend more while traveling and tend to add time to their trips to participate in local activities, according to the Travel Industry Association. The result is more revenue for localities and states.

How have states promoted such tourism? The Blue Ridge Heritage Initiative is a nationally recognized success story. In 1997, mountain communities, plus state, tribal and federal partners in North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia started to look for ways to promote the southern Appalachians. Specific routes have been designated including the Craft Heritage Trail, Blue Ridge Music Trail, Cherokee Heritage Trail, and Farms and Gardens and Countryside Trail.

These trails link rural communities with one another, the Blue Ridge Parkway and other scenic routes. The heritage trails traverse SO counties in four states, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, including all 29 counties along the Blue Ridge Parkway from Waynesboro, Va., to Chattanooga, Tenn., showcasing 150 distinct Appalachian communities.

Guidebooks have been published showing points of interests and scheduled events along the routes. Returned visitor survey cards from the Craft Heritage Trails guidebook indicate that 96 percent of those who bought guidebooks also purchased local crafts. Roughly 11 percent of those visitors spent $500 or more, and 62 percent spent between $200 and $400.