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Quick insights into local tourism trends

By Becky McCray

B&B owner Julia McCray in her kitchen

  Small town tourism groups and chambers of commerce often need information about their local tourism trends, but don’t have reliable sources of data. Statistics from the state are usually divided by county or only cover larger communities. The few stats you can get your hands on are usually well out of date. Turns out, […]

September 3, 2018 Filed Under: economic development, rural, tourism

Rural tourism trend: digital detox and off-the-grid vacations

By Becky McCray

  Rural areas and small towns can tap the rising tourism trend of vacations from our phones. And new research shows ways to take advantage of the trend. Lots of rural areas already have poor cell phone reception and slow broadband, so we might as well take advantage of it, right? Philip Lovell Pearce and Li […]

July 23, 2018 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, ideas, rural, tourism, trends

What can you do when a traffic detour cuts down on visitors to town?

By Becky McCray

Next year, Kristina Vonberge’s town is going to face bridge construction and a major traffic detour. She asked for ideas during the discussion session of our SaveYour.Town webinar on the arts. People coming to town are going to have to detour 17 miles out of the way to get to town. How can she draw […]

April 30, 2018 Filed Under: economic development, rural, tourism

Tourism idea: host a rural retreat after a big conference in the big city

By Becky McCray

When I saw this news article, the light went on over my head! This is such a great fit for small towns to boost their tourism. Norfolk County, Ontario, is hosting the culinary industry at the Terroir Rural Retreat. It will be the day after the major Terroir Symposium held in big city Toronto, almost […]

February 26, 2018 Filed Under: economic development, entrepreneurship, rural, tourism

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