Compiled and edited by members of the NET Communications and Executive Committees: Natalie Chin, Kristen Devlin, Mercedes Fraser, Molly McManus, Xinyi Qian, Ann Savage, Gwynn Stewart, and April Turner.
Table of Contents
- Letter from NET Chair, Xinyi Qian
- Next NET Webinar (3/25): Creating a Beverage Tourism Destination
- Regional Spotlight on the South
- Updates from the NET Design Team and Partners
- 2025 NETtra Tourism Conference
- Updates from Agritourism and Outdoor Recreation Working Groups
- March 6th meeting
- Regional Listening Sessions
Letter from NET Chair, Xinyi Qian
Dear National Extension Tourism NETwork,
2025 has arrived with complex landscapes. We are all facing uncertainties that impact our work. I want to thank you for your courage, resilience, and continued support of NET.
The collaborative and impactful work that we do together lends itself as the strongest advocacy for our public value. For example, the Western and Southern regions, in collaboration with their Regional Rural Development Centers, conducted listening sessions on outdoor recreation in February, and the North Central region, in collaboration with the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD), will conduct a listening session on outdoor tourism in late March.
In 2025, we will also continue engaging NET members with webinars, newsletters, and our presence on LinkedIn. We also look forward to our joint conference with the Northeast chapter of Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) in New Hampshire in early October. Stay tuned for the Call for Abstracts, which will be issued in March.
As always, we value your engagement with NET and welcome your ideas. Feel free to reach out to us via email and stay connected with us on LinkedIn. Please take care!
Sincerely,
Xinyi Qian, Ph.D.
Director, University of Minnesota Tourism Center
Chair, NET
NET March Webinar: Creating a Beverage Tourism Destination – 3/25 at 12pm ET
The NET webinar committee is pleased to kick off its 2025 webinar series with “Creating a Beverage Tourism Destination,” on Tuesday, March 25th at 12:00 p.m. Eastern. The webinar will be presented by Kathy Kelley, Penn State Professor of Horticultural Marketing and Business Management, who will present on trends describing what tasting rooms and related alcoholic beverage venues can implement to attract visitors. Strategies include developing events based on national trend data, partnering with complementary businesses, and customizing experiences based on surveying visitors and loyalty program members. Registration is required, click here to register.
Spotlight on the Southern 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 Southern Region.
New Research Reveals Economic Impact of Nature-Based Tourism in the Mississippi Gulf Coast National Heritage Area
Submitted by Rachael Carter, Mississippi State University
The Mississippi Gulf Coast National Heritage Area has been working to enhance nature-based tourism across its six coastal counties—Stone, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River, and George. A recent study conducted in partnership with the Gulf of Mexico Alliance, Mississippi State University Extension, and other key organizations has provided valuable insights into the economic impact of nature-based tourism in the region.
Findings from the study indicate that in 2023, approximately 285,440 visitors engaged in nature-based tourism activities, while 177,000 local residents participated in outdoor recreation. Visitors contributed an estimated $98 million in direct spending, generating an additional $47 million in secondary economic impacts. Meanwhile, local participants added another $38 million in outdoor recreation related expenditures.
The research utilized multiple data collection methods, including digital surveys of visitors and industry stakeholders, focus group discussions, and economic modeling tools such as Lightcast and Placer.ai. The study revealed that nature-based tourism employment has grown significantly in Stone (63%), Hancock (47%), and Harrison (43%) counties, while Pearl River and Jackson counties experienced declines, largely attributed to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the industry recovers, stakeholders emphasize the need for enhanced collaboration, expanded digital marketing efforts, and greater state and regional support to sustain growth in Mississippi’s nature-based tourism sector. Stakeholders identified key challenges being a need for increased visibility online and additional resources in digital marketing.
For more information on the study results or a copy of the study please contact Rachael Carter rdm1@msstate.edu.
Article Edited by OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (February 20 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com
NET Design Team Member Spotlight – Mercedes Fraser, University of Kentucky
In this new column, we’re asking colleagues about their favorite resources or upcoming opportunities they’re excited about.
This quarter, we hear from Mercedes Fraser, NET Southern Representative and Extension Specialist at the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky (CEDIK).
Q: What’s a favorite resource of yours that you’d like others to know about?
A: The Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky, CEDIK, partnered with USDA Rural Development to create the Rural America Placemaking Toolkit. This website is a great starting point for communities who are interested in placemaking activities. There is a Getting Started Guide that takes you to a quick survey that helps gauge readiness for projects, and there are many placemaking project examples that have a quick summary, along with easy-to-download and follow activity sheets that tell you the cost, timeline, difficulty, and type of activity you’re looking for.
Q: Have you or your organization worked on any resources lately?
A: One activity highlighted in the Rural America Placemaking Toolkit is the Youth Design Camp How-To Guide. This thorough guide details how to plan and host a Youth Design Camp that ends with an asphalt mural installation. The design camp was piloted in Sharpsburg, KY, a rural community where quilt squares are shared on local barns, and those squares were the inspiration behind the mural installed downtown by youth participants. You can access the guide through the Rural America Placemaking Toolkit or through CEDIK’s website.
This activity is a great way to engage youth in placemaking downtown and pull together community partners, such as Cooperative Extension, Tourism, and Main Street.
Thanks, Mercedes! We’ll add the Toolkit to the NET Resource Library!
Recap of the Southern Region Extension Outdoor Recreation Listening Session
Ann Savage from NC State University representing the National Extension Tourism and their Outdoor Recreation Working Group worked with the Southern Rural Development Center and Extension partners from Texas A&M and Mississippi State to host a Southern Region Outdoor Recreation Listening session. The session took place on Monday, February 18 with 21 participants and was designed to understand how to build capacity for outdoor recreation work within Extension. The discussion had three main prompts for attendees:
- Opportunities for outdoor recreation in Extension’s work brought up three key areas: health, environment and opportunities for new or expanded engagement.
- Challenges for Extension to do this work stemmed from four main sources: institutional, ability to access outdoors, landowner education needs and public education needs.
- Lastly, we discussed Actions Extension could take to support capacity in outdoor recreation work. This highlighted opportunities both within Extension and in partnership with other outside organizations and entities.
We ended the call with a visioning of accomplishments we want to see a year from now. Some of the ideas that came up had to do with building relationships with national, state and local parks associations, developing case studies that can help Extension professionals see what outdoor recreation programs entail, and the need for entrepreneur support as these are essential to outdoor recreation communities. The planning team looks forward to meeting again to work on next steps. If you would like more information related to this session, please email Ann Savage at aesavage@ncsu.edu.
Update from the NET Design Team
NETtra 2025 Conference Update
The 2025 NETtra Tourism Conference committee is continuing to finetune conference details, with field trips, workshops, and sessions planned on topics including agritourism, outdoor recreation development, downtown revitalization, lake ecology, and more! The conference is a first-time collaboration between NET and the Northeast Chapter of the Travel and Tourism Research Association (NETTRA). The University of New Hampshire is hosting the event, taking place October 7-10, 2025, in Meredith, NH. The conference website has a preliminary schedule and details about the venue. Mark your calendars and stay tuned for the call for papers in early March!
Updates from the Agritourism and Outdoor Recreation Working Groups
Agritourism Working Group Meeting on March 6th
Join the NET Agritourism Working Group for an interactive Zoom meeting on Thursday, March 6 at 12pm EST, 9am PST. This meeting is a chance to learn about agritourism resources and programming happening around the US – and to share your work with NET colleagues. Dee Singh-Knights from West Virginia University Extension and Lindsey Pashow from Cornell Cooperative Extension will give an update on the Nationwide Agritourism Curriculum under development and let you know how you can get involved in this three-year project funded by the USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP). All are welcome, whether you have decades of experience to share or are just getting started with agritourism programming. Register at: https://uvm-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/-rM9vURvSDm7C51FPvpoBA#/registration
Regional networking sessions for Outdoor Recreation/Tourism in Extension
Several members of the National Extension Outdoor Recreation Working Group steering committee have collaborated with their respective Regional Rural Development Center to organize regional listening sessions and/or networking meetings focused on outdoor recreation and Extension. These sessions are aimed at providing participants an opportunity to connect with others in their region who are working on outdoor recreation and tourism, and to align potential outdoor recreation opportunities with Extension efforts. The Western region’s session took place on February 4th, the Southern region’s session took place on February 18th, and the North Central region’s session will take place on March 25th (click here for details). If you missed your regional session, feel free to reach out to the steering committee member from your region for more information:
- North Central region: Xinyi Qian, qianx@umn.edu
- Southern region: Ann Savage, aesavage@ncsu.edu
- Western Region: Jake Powell, jake.powell@usu.edu
Learn more about the NEORWG here.
Thanks for reading! The next NET newsletter will be published in May. View older newsletters here.