The Rural Tourism Institute: Leveraging Land-Grant Universities to Support Sustainable Rural Tourism Development in Appalachia

Abstract Dr. Alison Davis West Virginia University 2-9-2024 The Rural Tourism Ins tute will include three components; the Rural Tourism Academy, Rural Tourism Lab, and Rural Tourism Peer Network. The Rural Tourism Academy will develop the industry’s ?rst Rural Tourism Execu ve Cer ?ca on program that will train rural tourism industry leaders and Extension educators on the principles of sustainable des na on management while guiding them through the process of establishing a strategic marke ng plan and tourism master plan for their des na on. Extension educators will be er understand and de?ne their role as a primary partner with des na on organiza ons helping to develop and guide the des na ons product development strategy and leveraging new partnerships to build a broader team that embraces the opportuni es that tourism can bring to support sustainable community development. The curriculum will be primarily structured in an online course module framework while also including some scheduled in-person engagement opportuni es to develop a des na on management cohort that learns and grows together. Proposed online course module framework to be developed and launched u lizing the Extension Founda on’s e-campus online, the knowledge-to-ac on service that is an integral part of the U.S. Coopera ve Extension Service. The Rural Tourism Lab will be established in order to leverage land-grant university academic faculty and students to ?ll cri cal data and intelligence gaps and provide planning and research support necessary to help des na on leaders understand the economic, social, and environmental impacts of tourism to make informed decisions to guide the development and implementa on of a tourism master plan. Academic faculty at par cipa ng Universi es with experience in rural economics, qualita ve and quan ta ve data analysis, GIS applica ons, and asset-based community development will be engaged to develop the research and par cipatory planning methodologies. Rural tourism research needs iden ?ed by consultancy groups and in previous studies include background/des na on assessment and analysis, tourism/recrea on market analysis, compe ve market area analysis, and resident sen ment toward tourism. A variety of par cipatory methods and service-learning approaches to research and design will be considered based on locally iden ?ed data needs including but not limited to: design charre es, visioning workshops, asset mapping and inventory, SWOT analysis, focus groups, and surveys. Primary data and secondary data collec on methods will be u lized. Primary data collec on involves GIS scenario planning and asset mapping, focus groups, workshops, and stakeholder surveys (visitors, residents, businesses). Secondary data may include census data on popula on and communi es, literature on rural community indicators and toolkits, and literature on sustainable recrea on/tourism and community development. The Rural Tourism Peer Learning Network will be established to provide facilitated networking and informa on sharing among des na on leaders eager to share best prac ces and lessons learned and support each other as they embrace the opportuni es and challenges in shi ing from a marke ng to a management approach and learn from each other.