Tourism as Economic Development
A Brief Guide for Communities and Enterprise Developers
by Bob Glover
Somewhere centuries ago a community decided to celebrate, and a festival was
born.
Vendors sensed that people would gather and be in a mood to buy their
wares.
Townsfolk realized that visitors from afar would need places to
rest.
Someone knew enough to organize the event and, if that person was a visionary,
he knew that revelers would pay to watch the sun go down, that is if
accompanying food and music were provided.
Visitors beat new paths to the community. Paths turned into roads. Vendors
decided that the festival was sustainable, so they stayed on, calling the
place where they gathered to do business the market.
The community now had a commercial center.
Dwellings that offered hospitality became inns and
eating-places.
The sun was reliable in its setting.
This was the place where tourism was born.
The model described has not changed over time. It is a simple model of
tourism development. Add the production of the goods that the vendors
offer for sale; then create a strategy for community development that
includes local manufacturing; and the process of economic
development, as we know it today, becomes definitive.
Tourism developers are marketers. The elements of their marketing
activities include recruiting, as well as the creation of products
that entice visitors to linger and seek leisure activities that
will part them from their money. For all practical purposes,
tourism development and tourism promotion are the same things.
Promotion is an element of marketing.
Economic
developers are marketers also. In areas of the world where the Industrial
Age has ended, there is only a semantic distinction between tourism developers and economic
developers, in terms of how they function to serve prospects. In
fact, industrial developers in North America only began to change
their identity to "economic developers" about 25 years
ago. Most people worldwide still think of economic development in
terms of industrial development.
Economic developers oriented
towards industrial development often refer to themselves as community
developers when they are engaged in activities related to building
local infrastructure. Economic developers often refer to themselves
as product developers when they are oriented towards tourism development
and similarly engaged in readying their communities. Separating economic
development activities into "industrial" or "tourism" is
of little importance until it causes confusion for those
who own opportunities and have decisions to make that affect locations
or expansions and start-ups. The smaller the community, the more
important it is that the local economic developer be capable of addressing
the needs of all types of prospects.
Entrepreneurs are more likely
to be involved in tourism-related product development than are corporate
executives responsible for relocating or expanding operations. Entrepreneurs
are also more likely to be unfamiliar with the nuances
of the economic development process as it relates to finding resources and assistance.
In addition to entrepreneurs, investors and property or project developers
are generally what make up a "whole" tourism-related prospect.
During the times of industrial
development opportunity, communities promote and recruit for prospects
that come neatly prepackaged, as compared to times of development
opportunity for tourism product, which are primarily commercial opportunities.
Industrial prospects generally challenge a
community with a standardized set of criteria that place it in a
competitive position against other communities.* Commercial
prospects generally challenge a community to produce evidence
of market potential. In essence, a community competes with
itself in commercial development. If entrepreneurs seek
assistance from economic developers, it is generally because
they want help in putting their packages together so that they can
become a whole prospect. When they call upon economic developers
they often want assistance in finding sources of capital (investors)
and people who can make a concept work (developers).
In order to find a starting
point for guiding those who want to maintain their communities in
a position to grow as commercial centers, as well as for guiding
those who are business leaders with opportunities to bring to communities,
I wrote this paper as a recap of what I recently learned about tourism
product. The time of my learning surrounds the 1996 Summer
Olympic Games, which took place in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The "Atlanta
Olympics" was my opportunity to be exposed to all facets of
tourism-related product at one time. It was a time in my career as
an economic developer when I participated in the greatest variety
of projects. I was on the scene before, during and after the event
as a consultant with product development responsibilities that extended
beyond the metropolitan area of Atlanta throughout the state of Georgia,
and into the whole region of the Southeastern United States as well.
I was involved with prospects interested in capturing the market
created by the event in Atlanta, as well as prospects interested
in developing
permanent markets in rural areas. I was forced to define
tourism product and carefully consider its process when confronted
with any opportunity that would affect its development.
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What is Product Development?
All of the definitions of tourism-related product that I have
yet heard have an obvious common thread. A promotional brochure
has been defined to me as product. An event, such as a family
reunion, has been described to me as product. Organizing tours
to give city people an opportunity to experience rural life
is regularly suggested at tourism conferences as a product
worthy of development. The common thread woven through all
of these points is that product must appeal to travelers and
people seeking leisure-time activities.
Alvin Rosenbaum of the National Center for Heritage Development
(formerly the National Coalition for Heritage Areas) said, "Tourism
product supported by public agencies is a blend of conservation,
community and economic development." He said this at the
annual meeting of the American Association of Museums in 1997.
Earlier at a Cultural Tourism Leadership Forum in Chapel Hill,
North Carolina, Jerold Kappel raised the issue of how to define
product. Mr. Kappel, who is the American Association of Museums'
(AAM) director of development, included a need to interpret
what product is among five challenges to its development. In
later correspondence to my wife and business partner he explained
and emphasized the importance of considering product development
within the context of the whole community. He wrote that tourism
product is community-based. He wrote, "...what makes cultural
tourism unique is that people go to absorb and experience the
culture of a place." He earlier defined "place" as
a destination with a story to tell to a visitor.
Both the imaginary model that introduces this paper and the
Atlanta Olympics model can be identified as "market
models." The
first was presented as a permanent market that formed from
an event. The latter was an established market that was enhanced
by an event. Market is critical to product development. In
Atlanta, it was necessary to build a sports infrastructure
to support the Olympics. The right product in the right place,
at the right time, is critical to turning a commercial development
opportunity into a reality.
Prior to the 1996 Summer Olympic games, Atlanta developed
an infrastructure to appeal to sports fans. That infrastructure
was tested for its market potential, long before the Olympics
came along. The state provided the city with a conference and
trade show center that was the foundation for building an infrastructure
to accommodate the business traveler. The movie, Gone With
The Wind, gave Atlanta its major historic theme, and support
from people who made money from successful Atlanta based businesses
such as Coca-Cola helped build a foundation for its appeal
to visitors with cultural interests.
If you analyze Atlanta from a historic point of view, you
arrive at a point in time when there was a rural community
in its place. If you analyze Atlanta from a cultural point
of view, you see that, at exactly the right time in its development,
it embraced all the elements of its culture and heritage.
If you analyze Atlanta from the standpoint of its most recent
landmark event in tourism development, the 1996 Summer Olympic
Games, you see that its cultural and heritage position had
to be established ahead of time. The fact that an infrastructure
for sports-related tourism had to be created in recent times
is more obvious than the fact that government and business
working together in partnership was the key to making the event,
itself, successful in its chosen location.
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Atlanta and the State of Georgia, including its influential
economic development allies, made assumptions
about tourism and economic development ahead of the 1996 Summer Olympics
Games. Programs were developed around these assumptions and
a lot of money spent. Unfortunately, there was little direct
economic development return to the city and, especially, the
state. This would be difficult to prove, however, due to the
fact that a winner's spin was put on reporting so that investors
in the programs could feel good about them. This paper was
not written to address negative issues regarding the matter,
but its author feels that facing up to failure is the right
thing to do so that experience can be gained - and passed on.
CLICK
HERE to inquire by email about the author's experience
during the time surrounding the Centennial Olympics. You
are welcomed to ask specific questions about economic development
pitfalls.
Follow the instructions to send
an email.
Scaling the Atlanta Olympics model back in its application
as a model for even a small, rural community, makes a clear
case for establishing a tourism market based on heritage and
cultural appeal. Consider the fact that Atlanta's Olympic heritage
is now a part of its history.
At the beginning of the third chapter, "Product
Development: Increasing Attractiveness to Tourists," of her book, Partnerships
for Prosperity Museums
and Economic Development, Dr. Peggy Wireman wrote these words: "From
the point of view of economic development, a museum is a product
- something that
attracts visitors ..."
Relatively few traditional museums are operated as "for-profit" enterprises;
nevertheless, they are important as economic development entities
that complete the formula for success in attracting visitors
to most communities. Dr. Wireman's definition of product from
the cultural and heritage point of view, coupled with Mr. Kappel's
suggestion that product is a place of interest to tourists,
helps underscore what my imaginary model is meant to conveythe
whole community must be given consideration as a product to
develop. Consider the fact that Walt Disney
World ** is a master-planned
community, designed as a whole, to be nothing more than a tourist
attraction. There are many facets to its success, not
the least of which is its unified presentation as a community.
Using what I learned from Dr. Wireman and Mr. Kappel, I stress
another important point that is directly aimed at the practice
of economic development. Practitioners, professional and volunteers
alike, must be willing to take on projects for not-for-profit
cultural and heritage-related operations, such as museums,
if they are to play a role in preparing
their communities to attract visitors.
My point is strengthened by the example of the site selection
project for the Mighty Eighth Air Force Heritage
Museum near Savannah, Georgia. The museum was opened in early 1996 as a
90,000 sf facility and an investment of more than $12 milliona location prize by comparison to any comparable manufacturing
project. It is a noteworthy example also because the location
project was a national site search conducted with the assistance
of the American Association of Museums (AAM).
The Mighty Eighth's site search team targeted one community
where the local economic development office simply showed no
interest, apparently because it was not oriented towards assisting
with the location of museum projects. I learned about the situation
directly from a member of the site selection team, but it was
later borne-out by my personal experience in the same community
where there was inept handling of a second museum project.
As of the writing of this paper, the latter project is still
active with four locations under consideration, so I have chosen
not to identify it. My point is to stress the importance for
communities to orient their economic development
towards the full spectrum of opportunities.
In order not to weigh my pursuit of a definition for tourism
product totally towards the cultural and heritage interests,
I turned to Bill Hardman, Sr., former president of the Southeast
Tourism Society, and asked the question, "What is product?" He
first defined tourism as the movement of people from one place
to another for the purpose of occupying their leisure time
in combination with the "...art of entertaining; the promotion
of points of interest; and, accommodations for (those) seeking
recreation and pleasure." In 1995 Mr. Hardman stated that "tourism
product is whatever is put into the promotion." His examples
of tourism product ranged from fulfillment pieces to trade
shows. He also mentioned that it could be a whole community
or an individual facility, such as a park (a site) or a hotel
(a property). His definition included events as well as individual
efforts to be hospitable and ranged from natural settings to
man-made attractions and from public conveyances to pathways.
Mr. Hardman indicated those efforts
to put tourism product in place, such as finding a site or
property and developing
it, are not product development! He said that, instead, "Once
the product is in place, the efforts to promote it and put
it to use in accordance with [his] tourism definition is product
development." He emphatically stated that economic development
is the process used to put product in place.
Gail R. Trussell,
a commercial development specialist with the University of
Missouri Extension Service, once defined
tourism product as a place in a community where a cash register
rings because a visitor from out-of-town has brought in money.
After giving consideration to what various people, including
those named above, have said and written about tourism product
and its development, I concluded that it is what interests
travelers and people seeking leisure-time activities. I also
divided product into five categories, which are defined as
follows:
events
current and historic or cultural
locations
man-made and natural environments
(places with all their components sufficiently in place to
attract the visitors)
properties
sites and facilities
materials
guides, books, maps (fulfillment pieces and promotional give-aways)
operations
controlled functions and activities that attract and/or accommodate
people
Product development is the progression from idea to the realization
of any one of the categories listed above. My definition incorporates
the activities that take place before a product is actually
in place; therefore, for practical purposes it includes all
of the elements that make it the same as economic development.
Expanding on what Mr. Trussell said, tourism product development
is setting up and getting ready to ring a cash register with
new dollars brought into a community by visitors.
I see product development as a component of economic development.
I also see commercial development, community development and
industrial development as its components for the purpose of
stressing the importance of the whole community as a place
for economic development. I believe my argument is strengthened
by examination of a
definition of economic development from outside of my experience
in the business.
Page 2
Summary Guide
This paper was written to serve both the community seeking to develop
new business operations of interest to travelers and people seeking
leisure-time
activities, as well as business people who have decisions to make
about starting-up new venturespeople
who need information and resources to help them with decision-making.
It examines definitions and gives
examples that are intended to stir creativity and guide towards decision
within the economic development process. I am providing eight guiding
statements in closing for ...
communities that want to develop infrastructure to attract tourists
The eight points below is a quick reference for community leaders and
economic
development practitioners to use to in building programs and
setting strategies in place. Links to definitions in the .network glossary for
enterprise
and economic development are provided. If the interest is in
seeking the full spectrum of economic
development opportunities, then the
first step towards doing things right has already been taken. The best
advice that the writer of this resource
paper can give is to analyze your
community's potential from within as opposed to looking at what has done
elsewhere and simply copying a program or strategy. You need to take a
best
practices approach. For that, it is suggested that you review
the the .network summary file: Best
Practices for Places that want Economic Development. Keep what
you find in that resource as you review the following::
 The whole community must be developed as a tourist attraction.
Understanding the market and its potential is critical to tourism development.
The
most likely prospects for
enterprise development are at the local
level.
Entrepreneurs become
true prospects when investors and developers are
added.
First-time entrepreneurs and those opening new markets are high-risk prospects.
Networking with business suppliers and allies outside the community is smart.
Not-for-profit enterprises
or attractions can be prospects just like any other.
Public/private
partnerships put communities into prospect
development.
Eight guiding statements for ....
enterprise developers who need community resources
and cooperation
The key words and phrases written into this paper are meant to serve the
entrepreneur or business leader who has decisions to make about a community
or market he has under consideration. I believe that we are in
a time of change when economic development organizations are seriously gearing
up to provide complete services to all prospects that offer opportunities
to their communities. Prospects need to accept a role in shaping
the community economic development organization. I offer the following
key words and phrases that I hope will be helpful
The real estate industry owns the lead position in commercial development.
Savvy economic developers work with local real estate professionals.
When seeking community information, ask for an economic development profile.
When seeking community data, ask for a checklist for starting-up a new
business.
Tell community leaders what economic impact you expect your project to
make.
Tell economic developers what you want them to guard as confidential
information
Work through trade association(s) to find economic development contacts.
Network with economic developers who participate in your trade association(s)
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* Another resource paper compiled by Bob Glover is titled An
Introduction to the Enterprise Development Process. It is the
quintessential guide
to the basics of enterprise
development which includes getting started
as a site
selector. Organizing selection
criteria is one of the first
things that a site selector has to do.
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* * The mention of Walt Disney World prompted a user of The
Network to ask:
Who was the site selector for Disneyland and Walt Disney World? The
answer is in a file where the writer of this resource paper
publishes answers to all sorts of questions related to enterprise
and economic development. For example, users of The
Network from time-to-time
ask where they can find the official definition of economic development,
so
that
question is answered at the beginning of the file and mentioned here
because a brief examination of the
process opens the
next section of this paper.
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Gail Robert Trussell when first met by the writer was with
the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The Global Registry of Contacts
(for enterprise and economic development) has information shown below about
Trussell. His information appears to be out-of-date. You may also be interested
in knowing that the Rural Information Center (RIC) in a joint project
with the US Department of Agriculture, Cooperative State Research, Education & Extension
Service and the National Agricultural Library (NAL) produced a
bibliography series on tourism development that lists works by both Trussell
and Bill Hardman.
Gail R. Trussell
University of Missouri Outreach Extension
Camden County Extension Center
113 Kansas Street
PO Box 1405
Camdenton, MO 65020
573-346-2644
trusselg@missouri.edu
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