The March conference is sold out, with delegates from 40 states, Canada and Mexico. Let’s get to work!

As a boy growing up in Pennsylvania, I knew Benton MacKaye as one of the architects of the Appalachian Trail (for a year I lived right next to the trail). Years later I discovered MacKaye (1879-1975) had been a regional planner, and one of his recommendations we’ve taken to heart for the Civic Tourism approach. [...]

Dan Shilling’s comments on the insensitivity of “disaster tours” in New Orleans were well thought, and the situation of tourism in that city is precarious. This posting is by Gary Esolen, who was a founding director of the modern tourism marketing program in New Orleans, led the coalition to full funding, and ran the New [...]

One challenge we face with Civic Tourism is moving from concept (the idea or philosophy of Civic Tourism) to practice (how it actually plays out on the ground). We’ve held dozens of meetings throughout Arizona where, with our attractive PowerPoint presentations and video programs, we introduce citizens to the IDEA. Once people grasp Civic Tourism [...]

We’ve got a bit of an issue with all the Richard Florida “creative class” stuff as it relates to tourism. In the economist Florida’s popular books, THE RISE OF THE CREATIVE CLASS and THE FLIGHT OF THE CREATIVE CLASS, he encourages cities to invest in their “sense of place” in order to attract well-paying companies, [...]

The bus tour controversy in New Orleans shows that inviting the public into the “tourism conversation” is a win-win.