NOTE: This newsletter was sent to NET subscribers on May 22, 2024. To subscribe to the NET mailing list, sign up here.
Compiled and edited by members of the NET Communications and Executive Committees: Natalie Chin, Kristen Devlin, Mercedes Fraser, Molly McManus, Ann Savage, Gwynn Stewart, and April Turner.
Table of Contents
- Letter from NET Vice Chair, Ann Savage
- Regional Spotlight on Western Region
- Updates from Oregon
- Updates from Utah
- Next NET Webinar: Mobile Analytics vs. Traditional Surveys
- Updates from the NET Design Team:
- Agritourism Research and Extension Collaborative honored with USDA NIFA Partnership Award!
- North Central Regional Center for Rural Development Grant to Support Customized Curriculum to Outdoor Recreation Sector
- NC Tourism Case Studies Provide Solutions to Tourism Industry and Research Experience for Students
- Update from the Agritourism Working Group
- Update from the Outdoor Recreation Working Group
- Call for Articles: The Evolution of Agritourism – Past and Present
Letter from NET Vice Chair, Ann Savage
Dear National Extension Tourism NETwork,
As we kick off the start of summer, it’s impressive to see what our NETwork has accomplished in almost the first half of the year. The Agritourism Working Group continues its development assessing needs and existing resources to decide on the best direction forward. The Outdoor Recreation Working Group also continues its regular Steering Committee Meetings and recently the group updated the Outdoor Recreation one-pager describing the natural intersections of cooperative extension and outdoor recreation. In March NET hosted its first webinar of the year on Accessibility in Rural Tourism and Agritourism. And finally, the planning for our next biennial conference October 7-10, 2025 in Meredith, New Hampshire has kicked off. This joint conference with the Northeast Chapter of the Travel and Tourism Research Association (NETTRA) will be one you don’t want to miss.
We appreciate your time and engagement with NET and welcome your ideas. Please reach out to us via email and stay connected with us on LinkedIn. Have a wonderful summer season and make sure to find some time to explore new places!
Sincerely,
Ann Savage
Tourism Extension, NC State University
Vice Chair, NET
Spotlight on the Western Region
In each newsletter, we’ll feature NET-affiliated people and programs from a particular region. This time, we’re shining a light on the Western Region.
Updates from Oregon
By Miles Phillips
Recent years have seen strong growth in the recognition of tourism and even more specifically outdoor recreation and agritourism as significant components of the economy and especially rural economies. Twenty states now have an Office of Outdoor Recreation to specifically address this sector of the economy. Agritourism associations have expanded, and many states have created laws to address liability issues for agritourism operators.
In 2019, tourism was a $12.8 billion industry in Oregon. In 2020, that dropped to $6.5 billion due to COVID. In 2022 tourism brought in $13.9 billion.
In response to this growing activity and need for support Oregon State University (OSU) Extension and its Sea Grant Program have established Extension positions with tourism responsibilities. In 2016 OSU Sea Grant Extension established a full-time tourism position (Miles Phillips) for the seven coastal counties of Oregon. Since then, agritourism roles have been established for two OSU Land Grant Extension agents (Melissa Ferry and Audrey Comerford) working in the more central part of the state known for farming, i.e. the Willamette Valley. In 2024 a new tourism extension position was approved and is expected to be announced late summer of 2024.
Learn more about OSU Sea Grant and Extension Tourism Programming:
- http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/tourism
- https://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/smallfarms/agricultural-tourism
Publications and Online Courses:
- Guide Training and Certification, (GORP ) available in all states.
- Recreation Needs of Mountain Bikers at the Whiskey Run Trails in Bandon, Oregon
- An Initial Economic Impact Estimate of Agritourism in Oregon’s Willamette Valley
- OSU’s Agricultural Tourism Online Course
- Customer Service Free Online for all locations
Updates from Utah
By Jake Powell
Invitation to Basecamp Conference and Workshop in Moab, UT
Want to share, learn about, and collaborate with others about recreation, visitation management, and gateway community issues? Join us in Moab, Utah, home of two national parks, hundreds of miles of iconic trails, and some of the most stunning landscapes in the Western United States!
The Institute of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism at Utah State University is hosting the 2024 Basecamp Conference and Workshop, a conference focused on sharing ideas, research, best practices, and collaboratively creating a path forward for outdoor recreation management and gateway community planning in the American West and beyond. The gathering offers an opportunity to share new insights into how to improve outdoor recreation opportunities and preserve the things that make our gateway communities special. It also includes dedicated workshop sessions for collaboratively addressing existing and emerging challenges on public lands and their nearby gateway communities.
Basecamp will have two unique conference tracks and one shared workshop session during the week. You can register for one, or both, depending on your interests and availability.
To register, visit the Basecamp 2024 Conference Website: https://extension.usu.edu/iort/basecamp/
To submit a conference proposal, visit the presentations and submissions webpage:
https://extension.usu.edu/iort/basecamp/presentations
Utah State’s GNAR Academy Provides Online Training to Empower Gateway cCommunities
In May of 2024, Utah State University Extension’s GNAR (Gateway and Natural Amenity Region) Initiative launched the GNAR Academy Fundamentals online course. The course is a new resource developed to assist gateway community leaders, support organizations, and extension professionals in understanding what it means to be a gateway community and empower course participants with skills, strategies, and best practices, to engage in the unique challenges these communities face.
The course is organized into the following seven modules:
- What is a GNAR Community?
- Finding and Following Your North Star – Turning Values into Vision
- Navigating Conflict: Fundamentals of Conflict and Collaboration
- Navigating Conflict: The Situation Assessment
- Empowering Community Engagement
- Working Across Boundaries
- Charting Your GNARly Future
The modules share the lessons learned from the GNAR Initiative’s outreach, research, and communication with hundreds of gateway communities across the western United States. The modules provide not only recommended best practices, but also case studies from communities at the forefront of addressing common challenges faced by gateway communities.
The course is a self-paced, online, asynchronous format and applicable to anyone looking to build their competency working with and within these kinds of communities. Please visit the course website for more information. https://extension.usu.edu/gnar/gnar-academy
NET Webinar Series Continues! June Webinar to Focus on Mobile Analytics vs. Traditional Surveys
Registration is open for the second webinar in the 2024 NET Webinar Series — June 25, 2024, at 12pm Eastern — which will feature Dr. Ami Choi, University of Minnesota Tourism Center Specialist. Dr. Choi will present a case study exploring visitation patterns and visitor demographics at an outdoor recreation destination and will highlight key findings and answer your burning questions about mobile analytics vs. traditional surveys. Learn more and register here.
Updates from the NET Design Team
Agritourism Research and Extension Collaborative Honored with USDA NIFA National Partnership Award
Congratulations to members of the Agritourism Research and Extension Collaborative, who were recognized with a 2023 USDA NIFA Partnership Award for their multi-state work advancing agritourism! The award honors the collective efforts of a network of individuals that spans more than a dozen states at 11 Land-Grant Universities, and two community partner organizations who collaborated on several projects to advance agritourism nationally. Read more about the awardees and their accomplishments!
North Central Regional Center for Rural Development Grant to Support Customized Curriculum to Outdoor Recreation Sector
As a result of a partnership developed from the NET Outdoor Recreation Working Group, team members from The Ohio State University (OSU) Extension and University of Minnesota Extension were awarded a $40,000 a grant from the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development Small Grants program to customize a curriculum. Written by the Community Development team at OSU, the Building Entrepreneur Friendly Communities program provides the resources, training, and tools to develop community capacity to better understand and support the local entrepreneurial economy. Targeted for community leaders and elected officials, the customized community curriculum is designed to help local leaders understand the contribution of entrepreneurs to their local economy and jobs.
Through the grant, the curriculum will be reviewed and customized to the Outdoor Recreation sector, especially with Gateway communities in mind. In addition, an Ohio Pilot of the customized curriculum will also be coordinated.
Team members include Lead Investigator Gwynn Stewart, Assistant Professor – Community Development at Ohio State University Extension along with the OSU curriculum team writers Myra Moss, Professor & Educator, Community Development; Nancy Bowen, Associate Professor & Field Specialist, Community Economics; and Kyle White, Educator, Community Development. Partners from the University of Minnesota Extension’s Tourism Center also include Ami Choi, Statewide Tourism Specialist and Neil Linscheid, Rural Entrepreneurship Specialist.
NC Tourism Case Studies Provide Solutions to Tourism Industry and Research Experience for Students
The Sustainable Tourism Case Study Clearinghouse was established in Fall 2022 to examine the various challenges the tourism industry faces and provide solutions to address those challenges. This is accomplished through the creation of case studies, which illustrate actionable solutions that destinations can utilize to address tourism obstacles sustainably.
A survey, a media monitoring interface, and live listening sessions with tourism industry members across North Carolina are utilized to reveal current tourism industry challenges. Once a challenge is selected undergraduate student research assistants initiate primary and secondary research to identify existing solutions to that challenge. Through this process, the students expand their tourism network, learn about innovative tourism strategies, and gain experience in writing for a public audience.
The most recent case study developed was focused on Voluntary Visitor Fee Programs, which give opportunities for visitors to support local nonprofits through nominal fees collected through tourism services. The Clearinghouse also features solutions to challenges such as tourism workforce housing access and shoreline erosion in coastal destinations. These case studies are circulated through email to individuals who attended the North Carolina state tourism conference, as well as shared on the North Carolina State Tourism Extension website.
If you would like to share challenges you’d like solutions to, please complete this quick survey.
Update from the National Extension Agritourism Working Group
The NET Agritourism Working Group was formed in 2023 as a national networking platform for agritourism support providers. The Working Group held its second meeting of 2024 in April, during which they discussed strategies for moving forward, including:
- Developing shared digital resources
- Regional collaborations to build the Agritourism support ecosystem
- Professional development and training
A recording of the meeting is available here, and the Working Group will reconvene in the fall. To join the conversation and stay apprised of future meetings, sign up for the Working Group listserv at: https://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NET-AGRITOURISM-L&A=1
Update from the National Extension Outdoor Recreation Working Group (NEORWG)
The 18-person steering committee of the NEORWG has been meeting monthly since May 2023 to establish a shared strategy and collaborative network for Extension programming related to the outdoor recreation economy. Recent accomplishments include:
- A new fact sheet developed by several steering committee members makes the case for Extension’s involvement in the outdoor recreation economy and provides examples of outdoor-recreation-focused Extension programming and sample job descriptions for Extension positions focused on outdoor recreation.
- A project led by Doug Arbogast, West Virginia University, was selected to receive funding and assistance through the New Technologies for Ag Extension program operated by the Extension Foundation. The project, “Activating USDA Partnerships to Advance Recreation Economies,” will identify regions of the country where synergies among USDA agencies exist that can be nurtured to achieve successful recreation economy partnerships.
- A project led by Gwynn Stewart, The Ohio State University, was awarded a $40,000 grant from the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development Small Grants program to customize a curriculum to the Outdoor Recreation sector.
The NEORWG Steering Committee is co-chaired by Doug Arbogast and Jake Powell (Utah State University). A list of steering committee members is on the NEORWG web page.
Call for Articles: The Evolution of Agritourism – Past and Present
The Journal Tourism Cases is now accepting submissions for its upcoming special issue on agritourism. Tourism Cases is a double-blind peer reviewed journal published by CABI. For this special issue, editors are looking for case studies that demonstrate the range of agritourism and range of organizations that participate in agritourism worldwide.
“We hope to include contributions from producers/farmers, as well as researchers and government officials, and are happy to work with interested parties to help them compose high-quality case studies and flesh out any half-baked ideas that may be valuable,” said one editor via email.
Learn more and submit here: https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/journal/tcs/special-issues/evolution-of-agritourism
Thanks for reading! The next NET newsletter will be published in August 2024. View older newsletters here.