Tourism

Fun Can Mean Business for Rural Business

March 6, 2009

Have you given any thought to how attracting tourists to your area could help your business? The Palm Springs, California Bureau of Tourism did, and decided to market to college students traveling during spring break, using social media. You can take a look here to read four perspectives on what small business owners thought and [...]

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Luring Last Minute Travelers to Rural America

March 5, 2009

It seems that all of us in rural America are going to have to work a little harder this year to attract tourists and other regional visitors to our businesses. Apparently, state tourism and commerce agencies are finding it quite a challenge to get travelers to go out for an occasional night on the town, [...]

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Climate Change in Appalachia

March 3, 2009

As some of you may already know, my handmade craft business is very much seasonal and tourist-based, particularly from May through October when travel on the Blue Ridge Parkway is heaviest. For those of us with tourism businesses, nature and our mountain climate can be our best friends ….or our adversaries. We watch our regional [...]

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Just One Little Mistake

February 13, 2009

In yesterday’s post I discussed that the different customer groups a small business serves, seem to influence whether or not it has a website. If it’s a tourist business or one that hopes to attract visitors, that business is more likely to have a website or blog. If their business focuses on local customers, they [...]

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For Every Tourist Business There is a Season

January 8, 2009

I guess all businesses have a seasonal ‘ebb and flow’ to their year, some kind of fluctuation in sales or activity that can be tied to the different times and seasons of the year. For those of us with tourism-based rural businesses located along the Blue Ridge Parkway, Winter is generally our ‘down time’, our [...]

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Create a Rural Chamber of Commerce

January 5, 2009

Even in a rural country location, rural businesses can be quite diverse, having little in common except the residents that live in the area. But what about the beautiful scenery, wildflowers, wildlife and heritage they share? A cluster of businesses could join together and promote the resources they have in common to the traveling public. [...]