NOTE: This newsletter was sent to NET subscribers on 2/29/2024. To subscribe to the NET mailing list, sign up here.
Compiled and edited by the NET Communications Committee: Natalie Chin, Kristen Devlin, Mercedes Fraser, Molly McManus, Gwynn Stewart, and April Turner.
Table of Contents
- Letter from NET Chair, Xinyi Qian
- Highlights from First-Quarter NET Design Team
- Regional Spotlight on Southern Region
- CREATE BRIDGES update
- A look at the Alabama-Mississippi-Tennessee Rural Tourism Conference
- NET webinar series returns in March
- Updates from the NET Design Team:
- NET Vice-Chair Ann Savage recognized by Travel and Tourism Research Association,
- New Data Toolbox from North Carolina State University Extension
Letter from NET Chair, Xinyi Qian
Dear National Extension Tourism NETwork,
Happy New Year! I hope you are having a great start to 2024.
In January, NET Design Team welcomed its new National Sea Grant liaison, Amara Davis, Outreach Coordinator for the National Sea Grant College Program. Amara brings professional experience in tourism, partner and community engagement, communications, and DEIA.
We also recently welcomed several new Design Team Members. Read more about them and what we’re looking forward to in 2024!
Highlights from Q1 NET Design Team Meeting
- In 2024, the DEIA committee would like to develop and implement a formal DEIA statement for NET. The 2023 conference chair also suggested that reviewing conference evaluations would be helpful to identify some topics people are interested in learning more about.
- The Steering Committee of the National Extension Outdoor Recreation Working Group pitched project ideas to the USDA MOU partners at its February meeting. Each region has been encouraged to speak with the NIFA representative in more details about their project ideas.
- The National Extension Agritourism Working Group hosted a successful Zoom meeting on Jan 10. Our next meeting will be on April 30 and all are welcome. These meetings are a chance to learn about agritourism resources and programming happening around the US – and to share your work with colleagues. Register here.
Spotlight on the Southern Region
In each newsletter, we’ll feature NET-affiliated people and programs from a particular region. To kick off this new tradition, we’re shining a light on the Southern Region.
NET Southern Region Spotlight: CREATE BRIDGES Curriculum Available Now
Award-winning curriculum will help more rural communities support their retail and hospitality industries.
By Mercedes Fraser, CREATE BRIDGES Kentucky Project Coordinator
CREATE BRIDGES Overview: CREATE BRIDGES was a pilot project designed for multi-county regions to raise awareness of the role retail, accommodations, tourism, and entertainment businesses play in the local economy; determine challenges, barriers, and opportunities related to those businesses; and develop and implement strategies to strengthen the retail, accommodations, tourism, and entertainment sectors within a region. CREATE BRIDGES is a collaborative partnership between the Southern Rural Development Center, the University of Arkansas, The University of Illinois, the University of Kentucky, New Mexico State University, North Carolina State University, and Oklahoma State University. It is currently active in eight regions throughout the six partner states. CREATE BRIDGES received the NET Excellence in Tourism award in 2021. CREATE BRIDGES was developed and implemented with funding from Walmart.
You can learn more about CREATE BRIDGES impacts here.
The goal of the curriculum is to educate community and economic development practitioners on how to recreate the processes used in CREATE BRIDGES. The curriculum bridges theory into practice, emphasizes the processes used to attain results, and hopes to offer a new perspective on how to engage communities with workforce development.
The curriculum is available here. Read the full article here.
NET Southern Region Spotlight: The 2023 Alabama-Mississippi-Tennessee Rural Tourism Conference
By Susan Collins-Smith, MSU Extension Service | Submitted by Rachael Carter, MSU Extension Service
The Alabama-Mississippi-Tennessee Rural Tourism Conference was held Oct. 23-25 in Cleveland, Mississippi, to engage tourism employees, city council members, elected officials and others interested in growing tourism in rural areas. Themed “Investing in Local – Transforming Rural Communities into Destinations,” the conference was coordinated by rural tourism stakeholders from the three states and representatives from Mississippi State University Extension Service. Learn more about the event here.
NET Webinar Series returns! March webinar to focus on accessibility in rural tourism and agritourism
Registration is open for the first webinar in the 2024 NET Webinar Series — Thursday, March 28 at 12:00 p.m. ET // 9:00 a.m. PT — which will focus on accessibility in rural tourism and agritourism and will feature speakers Rupa Valdez and Claire Wellbeloved-Stone from the Blue Trunk Foundation, a non-profit driven by the belief that everyone should be able to enjoy travel regardless of age, disability, or health condition. Registration is required – register here. If you have accessibility accommodation requests please note these in the appropriate field during registration.
Updates from the NET Design Team
NET Vice-Chair Ann Savage recognized as TTRA Emerging Leader Rising Star
Ann Savage, NC State Tourism Extension and NET Vice Chair, was recently recognized as the Emerging Leader Rising Star at the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) Marketing Outlook Forum. Savage was recognized for her contributions to communities across North Carolina and the broader industry through innovative projects and significant contributions.
NC State Tourism Extension launches Data Toolbox White Paper Series to benefit the tourism industry
NC State Tourism Extension is excited to share the first of six white papers in the Data Toolbox White Paper Series: Why DMOs Need a Data Toolbox to Make Evidence-Based Decisions. These white papers are electronically published free of charge by North Carolina State University, to benefit the tourism industry.
The first-of-its-kind white paper series brings together leaders in academia, travel research, and destination marketing to create a standard of best practices on how DMOs can effectively utilize data and research tools to produce impactful and cost-efficient destination marketing strategies. The series is the inaugural product of the Travel and Tourism Research Association International (TTRA) new Think Tank initiative, at a time when destination decision makers have access to more data and research tools than ever before. Read more here.
Thanks for reading! The next NET newsletter will be published in May 2024. View older newsletters here.