Compiled and edited by members of the NET Communications and Executive Committees: Natalie Chin, Kristen Devlin, Mercedes Fraser, Molly McManus, Xinyi Qian, Gwynn Stewart, and April Turner.
Table of Contents
- Letter from NET Chair, Xinyi Qian
- Regional Spotlight on the North Central Region
- Next NET Webinar (9/24): CREATE BRIDGES
- Updates from the NET Design Team:
- WVU awarded funding to lead development of Rural Tourism Institute
- Update from the National Extension Agritourism Working Group
- Update from the National Extension Outdoor Recreation Working Group
- Recreation Economy for Rural Communities planning assistance program is accepting applications through October 16.
Letter from NET Chair, Xinyi Qian
Dear National Extension Tourism NETwork,
I hope this note finds you all having had a wonderful summer. Throughout this busy growing season, NET has been active. In June, multiple NET Design Team members attended the International Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) Conference in Burlington, Vermont, increasing awareness of NET and getting the word out about the 2025 NET – NETTRA joint conference in New Hampshire.
Speaking of the 2025 conference – it will be a first-time collaboration between NET and a TTRA Chapter, and the theme of the conference cannot be more fitting: “Connecting Through Tourism.” The lakeside setting in the historic village of Meredith, NH, will provide an immersive environment to explore a variety of tourism connections: The intersections of rural and urban, the visitor experiences that bring the past into the present, and the efficacy of uniting research with practice. Visit the conference webpage for more information.
To keep learning and connecting going, our quarterly webinar series has continued. In June, we had Dr. Ami Choi of University of Minnesota Tourism Center giving a presentation on a case study that she completed comparing mobile analytics with conventional survey methods. On September 24, we are excited to have Sara Siems of Oklahoma Extension deliver a webinar on the CREATE BRIDGES program: Celebrating Retail, Accommodations, Tourism and Entertainment by Building Rural Innovations and Developing Growth Economics. Click here to learn more and to register!
Thank you for your continued engagement with and support of NET. Please reach out to us via email and stay connected with us on LinkedIn. Have a fruitful fall season and make sure to find some time to savor all that fall has to offer!
Warmly,
Xinyi Qian, Ph.D.
Chair, National Extension Tourism NETwork
Spotlight on the North Central 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 North Central Region.
Updates from Ohio
By Gwynn Stewart
The Ohio State University Extension Community Development program has supported Ohio’s Byways program through coordination on the local levels. Gwynn Stewart, Assistant Professor of Community Development serves as the byway coordinator for the Appalachian Byway of Ohio. She has also served as the Ohio Byways Link state association Secretary and will transition into the President’s role for the new program year.
Ohio is home to 27 scenic byways that traverse the Buckeye state. According to the Ohio Department of Transportation, “every byway has something unique and diverse to offer and all byway trips ensure that travelers will experience something distinct and diverse.”
Stewart is a member of the National Scenic Byway Foundation (which is led by an Ohio State Univ. Extension retiree, Sharon Strouse) and also serves on the National Extension Tourism Design Team and Outdoor Recreation Workgroup. She was appointed to the regional Outdoor Recreation Council of Appalachia. The Appalachian Byway of Ohio program has received two National Scenic Byway Foundation awards and a regional economic development award for Tourism in Ohio.
Learn more about Ohio’s byways at: https://www.transportation.ohio.gov/traveling/ohio-byways
Read more about how scenic byways boost the tourism sector with the NET Fact sheet at: https://extensiontourism.net/scenic-byways-boost-the-tourism-sector/
Update from Wisconsin
By Natalie Chin
Upcoming Publication about Climate Change and Downhill Skiing in Wisconsin
Wisconsin Sea Grant helps lead the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts’ Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Working Group. The working group is focused on understanding how climate change will impact tourism and outdoor recreation activities across the state of Wisconsin and developing resources and initiatives that support the sector’s mitigation and adaptation activities. Working group members recently completed a study focused on understanding owner and operator perspectives around climate change impacts on downhill skiing in Wisconsin. The final version of the study, “Downhill Skiing & Climate Change Adaptation in Wisconsin: Perspectives from Key Stakeholders,” is now available through Environmental Research Communications as an open access article here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2515-7620/ad6ee6
Update from the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development
NCR-Stat: Baseline adds outdoor recreation section to 2024 survey
As North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD) embarked on their second baseline survey for the open access, regional database – NCR-Stat, a new section on the outdoor recreation economy was added thanks to the assistance of National Extension Outdoor Recreation Working Group Steering Committee. This year’s survey will include ten new survey questions that explore the economic and social impacts of tourism and outdoor recreation on a state and regional level.
The NCR-Stat: Baseline survey, a regional household survey designed to provide a baseline social and economic perspective of the North Central Region was originally conducted in 2022. To maintain the information over time, NCRCRD plans to conduct the survey every two years. Originally conducted only in the North Central Region, the 2024 Baseline Survey has been adopted by two other regions – the Northeast Region and the Southern Region and will be conducted using the same survey and at the same time. This expansion, made possible by the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development and the Southern Rural Development Center respectively, will ensure that more research and Extension professionals will have open access data on the outdoor recreational economy by state and region. Expected release of datasets: December 2024.
2024 NCRCRD Small Grant Awarded to project customizing curriculum for Outdoor Recreation Sector
In the most recent round of Small Grants awarded by NCRCRD, a team from The Ohio State University (OSU) Extension and University of Minnesota Extension were awarded $40,000 to customize the OSU Community Development curriculum, Building Entrepreneurial Friendly Communities for the outdoor recreation sector.
- Principal Investigator: Gwynn Stewart, The Ohio State University Extension
- Co-Principal Investigators: Myra Moss, The Ohio State University Extension, Nancy Bowen, The Ohio State University Extension, Kyle White, The Ohio State University Extension, and Ami Choi, University of Minnesota Tourism Center
- Learn more about the project in this previously published article by NET
- NCRCRD Small Grants Program: RFP for 2025 grants will be posted in early fall
NET September webinar to focus on the CREATE BRIDGES program
Registration is open for the third webinar in the 2024 NET Webinar Series — Tuesday, September 24 at 2:00 p.m. ET — which will feature the CREATE BRIDGES program: Celebrating Retail, Accommodations, Tourism and Entertainment by Building Rural Innovations and Developing Growth Economies (CREATE BRIDGES). More information and a registration link are available here: https://extensiontourism.net/net-webinar-create-bridges/
Updates from the NET Design Team
WVU awarded funding to lead development of Rural Tourism Institute
Collaborators include North Carolina State Extension Tourism, the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky, the Northeast and Southern Regional Rural Development Centers
In August, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) announced $485,000 for a new project led by Doug Arbogast, Rural Tourism Development Extension Specialist at West Virginia University in collaboration with NC State Extension Tourism, the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky, the Northeast and Southern Regional Rural Development Centers, prominent tourism industry consultants, and community partners across three Appalachian states. This grant will allow the project team to use the funds to plan the development of the Rural Tourism Institute which will be comprised of three components: the Rural Tourism Academy, which will develop the industry’s first Rural Tourism Executive Certification program; the Rural Tourism Lab, which will leverage academic faculty and students to fill critical data and intelligence gaps and provide planning and research support; and the Rural Tourism Peer Network, which will provide facilitated networking and information sharing among practitioners. During the 12-month planning grant, the team will work together to outline curriculum development for the certification training program and delineate research activities for the lab. Tourism authorities from at least two counties in each state will participate as active partners in training, research and networking. Funding was made via ARC’s Appalachian Regional Initiative for Stronger Economies (ARISE), which aims to drive large-scale, regional economic transformation through multi-state collaborative projects across Appalachia. Check out the project snaphot to learn more!
Update from the National Extension Agritourism Working Group
The Agritourism Working Group took a break from meetings during the summer, but we kept working behind the scenes. Three subgroups are making progress in the following areas:
- Developing shared digital resources
- Regional collaborations to build the agritourism support ecosystem
- Professional development and training
We submitted two proposals to support the Agritourism Working Group. Dee Sing-Knights from West Virginia University led a proposal for the USDA Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Program titled, Empowering Agritourism Service Providers to Strengthen Agritourism Programs as a Farm Diversification Strategy Among Beginning Farmers and Ranchers. Lindsey Pashow from Cornell Cooperative Extension led a proposal for the Northeast Regional Food Business Center titled, Northeast Agritourism Support Network: Building a Technical Assistance Provider Network that Supports Direct to Consumer Sales and Educational Experiences for Agritourism Operations in the Northeast. We are hoping to receive funding through these grants to further the work of the Agritourism Working Group.
In addition, we are planning ahead for a meeting in the fall and will have more information about that soon. 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
The NET Agritourism Working Group is co-chaired by Lisa Chase (University of Vermont) and Lindsey Pashow (Cornell Cooperative Extension).
Update from the National Extension Outdoor Recreation Working Group
On its most recent call, the NEORWG hosted USDA RD’s Senior Social Scientist Amanda Hope and Innovation Specialist Jenna Savage, who shared about RD’s data resources, including the Rural Data Gateway. A recording of the webinar resources shared are available here. Learn more about the NEORWG and sign up for the NEORWG mailing list here.
Recreation Economy for Rural Communities planning assistance program is accepting applications through October 16.
Recognizing that outdoor recreation is a large and growing sector of the economy nationwide, the Recreation Economy for Rural Communities (RERC) program was formed in 2019 to provide planning assistance to small towns and rural communities to help them boost their outdoor recreation economy and revitalize their main streets. The program is a partnership between EPA’s Office of Community Revitalization, USDA Forest Service, the Northern Border Regional Commission, the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Denali Commission, and these agencies invite communities to apply for the next round of Recreation Economy for Rural Communities assistance. The deadline to apply is 11:59 pm Eastern Time on October 16, 2024.
Find the call for applications and learn how to apply here.
Thanks for reading! The next NET newsletter will be published in November 2024. View older newsletters here.