How have these steps and principles worked for others?

How have the National Trust for Historic Preservation's guiding principles and steps for successful and sustainable cultural heritage tourism worked for others?

The success stories featured on this website show the principles in action, and demonstrate the steps that different programs have taken to reach their goals. Collaboration is essential in today’s competitive tourism market, and with increasing pressures on local resources, it is critical to find the fit between the community and tourism to ensure that tourism efforts are sustainable for the long term. When done correctly, cultural heritage tourism helps to preserve the irreplaceable resources that a community treasures.

Today’s cultural heritage travelers are more well traveled and more well educated than previous generations of travelers, and they expect more from their travel experiences—making quality and authenticity more important than every before. These same higher expectations and increasing competition for the visitors’ time also mean that the visitor experience has to make the site or program come alive.

All too often, local stakeholders think that getting involved in tourism means publishing a brochure or launching a new website. These four steps show that promotion is, in fact, the final step of “marketing for success.” Before getting to that final step, it is important to know what it is that you have—and what you want—to share with visitors. Next it is time to match up what you have with what potential visitors are looking for—and then make the necessary changes to be sure that you are offering the best visitor experience possible. Once you are truly ready, it is finally time to look at marketing.

Cultural heritage tourism development is a gradual process that takes a long-term commitment. These four steps of assessing, planning, preparing and marketing are ones that successful programs repeat time and time again as they continue to expand their offerings—and their audience.

The Pay Off

Hard work pays off. The list of areas that have succeeded in heritage tourism is long and growing. To encourage you to start your own program, we’d like to share what a few of the participants in the National Trust’s Heritage Tourism Initiative have said about their experience when the initiative ended as well as comments from others who have used the principles and steps.

“The growth of tourism was inevitable for Nappanee, but tourism growth could easily mean the destruction of the values and qualities of our small town. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has helped us preserve our heritage and yet share it with our visitors.”
— Larry Andrews, Manager, Nappanee Main & Market Streets, Indiana

“The Heritage Tourism Initiative has allowed us to develop an approach to tourism that is appropriate for our region. The program has also helped us to develop the Texas Heartland Network of visitor centers, natural and cultural heritage corridors, informational materials, and an educational program. Expanding this network of comprehensive services and products is the basis for our next three-year action plan.”
— Julia Jarrell, Pilot Area Manager, LBJ Heartland Council, Texas

“The Heritage Tourism Initiative has meant that Wisconsin was able to bring into being the largest historic preservation project ever attempted in the state. A 12-county, 200-mile corridor containing hundreds of potential restoration sites is now being organized for public tourism access.”
— Alan C. Pape, Project Manager, Wisconsin’s Ethic Settlement Trail

“Lac du Flambeau has “been buzzing with visitors all summer,” reported Pat Hrabik, project manager of the community’s heritage tourism pilot project in Wisconsin. Attendance is up at the Lac du Flambeau Museum/Cultural Center. The Indian Bowl Pow-Wows were “extremely well attended.” Tribal employees have been trained in techniques of surveying and identifying archaeological sites. In these and many other activities, the town has continued “to encourage tourism without impacting in a negative way on the culture and sacred sites located on the reservation.”

Historic Southern Indiana, says its director, Darrel E. Bigham, “has grown considerably in the quality as well as the quantity of its products and services.” Of special value, he feels, has been the push “to sharpen our focus regarding all aspects of long-range planning, including marketing; to assess and to reshape our priorities; to develop a stronger structure…to improve the quality of promotional materials; and to establish projects…which lay the basis for long-term regional growth and improvement.”

In the Tennessee Overhill area, as in many other places, the development of cultural tourism has spun off other activities; new attractions (a textile museum), new events (a rail excursion, a Native American festival), historic preservation (purchase of a theater for use as an auditorium, studies of historic zoning, and much else), economic development, and new partnerships. In addition to local investments or private contributions, $70,000 from out-of-town sources has been infused into the area. Says Linda Caldwell, project director of the Tennessee Overhill Experience, “From the start we believed that a cultural tourism program…could be successful and serve as a springboard for overall regional cooperation and development. Today, as our third project year begins in the Tennessee Overhill, I am astonished at the spin-off activities that have resulted from this program. Has the Heritage Tourism Initiative been worth it? You bet!”

The National Trust for Historic Preservation's five principles and four steps have continued to guide cultural heritage tourism programs beyond the Heritage Tourism Initiative. Here are what leaders in the cultural heritage tourism industry had to say more than a decade after the initiative ended:

“As an original participant of the Heritage Tourism Initiative, I continue to marvel at the impact this program has had on the travel industry. Communities that felt they could not be a part of the travel industry because they didn’t have traditional “tourist” attractions began to realize that they could draw upon their history and culture to bring visitors, and their economic impact, into their community.”
— Rene Campbell, Executive Director, Columbus Visitors Center, Columbus, Indiana

“The Heritage Tourism Program was the first to articulate the who, what, how and where of heritage tourism. Many of us were nurtured on their step-by-step guide, Getting Started: How to Succeed in Heritage Tourism.”
— Mitch Bowman, Executive Director, Virginia Civil War Trails, Inc.

“The National Trust’s Heritage Tourism Program has literally written the book on heritage tourism. Their five guiding principles and four steps are the definitive parameters for successful programs.”
— Ed McMahon, Vice President, The Conservation Fund

Through their own efforts, and with a little help from their friends, these communities and regions have reclaimed their heritage and helped it belong to us all. In the process, they have discovered new ways to thrive. Can your area succeed in heritage tourism? You bet! Now is the time to get started.