Web viewGauging Public Interest in Trail Central. A research report generated by University of...

Gauging Public Interest in Trail Central

A research report generated by University of Pittsburgh at Bradford students Ernest Benkovski, Jennifer Crowley, Ryan Crowley, Mara Kloss, Desiree’ Lamer, Lauren Marshall, Michael

Morrison, Jenna Oyler, and Elizabeth Tillman.

Produced in conjunction with and on behalf of the Allegheny National Forest Visitors Bureau

December 2011

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Methodology 2

Questionnaire 4Results

Results by town 6

Next steps 8

Appendices 10a. Town Hall

Questionnaireb. Phone Survey

Questionnairec. Phone Survey

Resultsd. Town Hall

Transcripts

Trail Town meeting in Kane, PA (Oct. 18, 2011)

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Introduction

The task of balancing industry and nature has been one of great question and difficulty, but it has

been the story of Northwestern Pennsylvania for the majority of its history. On one hand, the

serenity of the magnificent national Forest provides an abundance of natural resources which

spark an awareness of nature, as well as calls for sustainability. On the other hand, the might of

the industrial machine of oil and timber—and now shale gas exploration—often presents an

image of choosing jobs over the natural environment. Appalachia has ample natural resources, in

other words, but it is not always the case that they are used sustainability. As the exploitation of

Pennsylvania’s natural resources is on the rise, so too are fears about the loss the unique and

wonderful natural assets. While oil and shale exploration will continue, there is also a growing

interest in better utilizing our natural resources for sustainable economic development, or

development that balances economic, environmental, and social needs through long-term,

democratic planning and decision making. One example of this strategy is ecological tourism, or

“ecotourism,” that would not only protect and preserve nature but also develop a sustainable,

unique, and growing local economy. We at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford have spent

the fall semester researching the potentials for ecotourism development in northwestern

Pennsylvania by collaborating with the Allegheny National Forest Visitors Bureau and their

strategic plan for implementing “Trail Central, ” which is a program that looks to utilize an

existing network of multi-use nature trails to diversify the regional economy and create non-

exportable jobs on the basis of ecotourism. This report is a cumulative outcome of a vast

quantity of intricate participatory research, conducted by the research team lead by Dr. William

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Schumann, in efforts to propose new reinvigoration in immense assets that exist as gold mines

to economic and community expansion. It is, and remains our goal to spread consciousness and

education about the connection between the cultural and natural grandeur of this area, and its

implementation as a direct and indirect method to the proliferation, development, and

refreshment of the local economy, standard of living, and aesthetic splendidness. Our key focus

was to work alongside local community members to expose the opportunities hidden within

one’s own town or city. Meeting with various local towns, organizations, citizens, business

owners, etc. the sense of productivity emerged quite immediately as the most significant facet

and ideal of our research shown itself through open discourse: unique, original, and vast

cultural/local richness. This asset ascended out and asserted to the local communities something

that was known but was not recognized often, and the discussions seemed to take a impressive

contour as the guidelines for their own success were drawn out on the table. Through crucial and

extremely beneficial partnership efforts with the Allegheny National Forest Visitors Bureau, and

the helpful guidance and assistance of the Executive Director, Linda Devlin, the research team

was able to extend and create a variety of town hall style meetings to study a wide range of

potential areas. Though some communities indicate a stable standing in terms of economy and

social well-being, the widely held areas exhibited some ample need in varied economic

boosts1( see Appendix, Northstar report). Following the same line of pattern identification, our

research indicated a multitude of interesting numbers regarding the vast number of tourists that

visit the communities and areas2 (See Appendix). After careful observation, long and crucial

analysis, hours of discussion, the report was finally constructed to display the findings of our

1 NorthStar Report demographics2 North Star Report Tourism Numbers

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attentive work, and the numbers and final outcomes showed a surprising and very interesting

illustration, exemplifying itself as a must read for the capacity analysis of the regions.

Methodology

We designed a method of research that would best gauge and inquire about public attitudes and

emotion of various implementations of trails, Geotourism, and various other sustainable methods

of economic development for the region. We focused on four towns in the Northwestern PA

region for our research design: Kane, PA; Bradford, PA; Smethport, PA; and Warren, PA. The

overall sample size for our research was n=93. To meet the research goal we decided not only to

devise a questionnaire, but also to hold community based meetings within the towns we were

including in the study. This allowed for a more complete and personal understanding of public

attitude and concerns alongside a formal questionnaire that enabled data analysis.

Our research looked into various elements and factors of Geotourism and the integration

of such concepts into the region. Each town that we travelled to, we performed a presentation

summarizing and defining the concept and properties involved with the creation of a trail town,

the implementation of Geotourism, and its benefits and impacts on the local environment and

natural resources in their area. After this we proceeded to engage the audience with a set of

discussion questions that sparked a discourse enabling the team to identify and clarify awareness

of Geotourism. From questions of asset identification, to questions about roles of local

businesses in the development process, community members got a chance to open up the

discussion and identify various pros and cons, issues and questions, and overall attitudes toward

Geotourism, Trail central, and the idea of a trail based economy. The bringing together of

community members enabled an awareness of others in the area that were already working

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towards projects and thus encouraged meeting of groups and cooperative efforts of others

towards projects, thus increasing overall drive toward the cause of the project. Towards the end

of our meetings, we handed out a questionnaire based survey that would serve as a form of

qualitative data analysis, looking into and identifying attitudinal patterns as well as major

resources and important asset information. The analysis and coding of this data assisted in

identifying and tracing patterns throughout all the studied towns, categorizing major assets and

factors that the communities recognized in their respective towns.

We also engaged in phone surveys of successful trail towns, including Damascus, VA and

Frostburg, MD, interviewing groups and organizations that were pivotal in the advancement and

overall achievement of the sustainable trail town model. The phone interviews were gauged for

local government, city administrators and managers, and successful business owners. With these

interviews we asked questions that would help us get a better understanding of how there

successful trail towns started, advertised, gathered community support, and was able to draw the

trail users into their town. These surveys will be used for supporting data from our findings with

the town hall meetings and questionnaires.

Overview of Results

To determine the readiness for trail town development, we first developed guidelines for

judging the capacity of towns incorporated in our study. Much of the criteria for capacity were

gathered from previous studies on trail town development and phone surveys conducted with

successful trail towns.

A key component of our capacity analysis was the amount of resources that already

existed within the communities. This includes active local organizations and natural and historic

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resources closely located to or within the towns. This information was also gained through

survey data results, as well as discussion responses, pertaining to the assets within the

communities, gathered during a series of town hall style meetings held in four towns within the

study area.

Another important asset for development is the amount of hospitality resources, lodging

and restaurants, available to tourists in these towns. This also included the existence of facilities

such as equipment rentals sites, public restrooms, and campgrounds. Also noted were features

within the community such as bike racks outside of restaurants and opportunities for guests to

store recreational sports equipment.

The attitude of the community towards trail town development can also have a large

impact on its success. To determine public opinion we observed and recorded the responses of

members of local governments and organizations who attended our meetings, along with the

opinions of the public to judge this willingness for development. This information was obtained

through survey questionnaire results and statements made in public meetings.

In our study, the majority of our questions were open, to avoid directing statements or

thoughts when discussing the assets or needs of communities. We used a few closed questions to

determine trail use, and a series of Likert scale questions to determine personal support for trail

development, as well as gathering individual opinions on the communities’ level of support.

Results – Town Hall Meeting Survey and Discussion Data

Overview

Within the entire population of participants, the personal trail use of the participants of

the different communities varied slightly. In Warren, over 70% of the participants said that they

used their existing trails at least twice a month or more; in Bradford this percentage was roughly

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55%. However, Smethport residents are currently using their trials somewhat less, the majority,

using trails 6-10 times a year or less. Over 20% of Kane residents stated that they never use the

trails, yet almost 40% of all participants of that town stated that they used the trails twice a

month or more. These individual community statistical percentages must be also associated with

the age, and occupation of the participants as well as the current level of trail use in the surveyed

communities. However, almost 50% of the combined populations stated that they used the trails

2 times a month or more, and 88% noted hiking as one of their common trail activities. The

majority of participants in all of the meetings were male, and the average age was around 50

years old. However, the average age for Warren was 44 years, and the average for Bradford was

52 years. This could be strongly related to the higher percentage of trail use in those

communities. The average age for residents of Kane was 49 years, while Smethport’s population

averaged to 54 years.

Resources in Place

When observing the natural assets of the communities, we found that 36% of the people

who completed the questionnaire saw their local water bodies to be one of their most important

current assets for trail down development. 89% of Bradford participants and 95% of Warren

participants mentioned the value of their local waterways, ponds, and lakes, along with 69% of

Kane and 67% of Smethport. Nearly a quarter of Bradford, Smethport, and Kane/Mt. Jewittt

participants cited wildlife as another of their communities’ assets. 45% of Warren and 19% of all

participants acknowledged their communities’ woodlands and their current trails, while 18% also

recognized the value of the areas diverse weather and beautiful fall foliage as an asset to

development.

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For historical assets, 37% of the participants recognized local historical museums and

their historical downtown centers as an asset existing in their community. 64% of Smethport

participants recognized the value of their historic downtown area which includes a mansion

district.31% of overall participants mentioned specifically the historical value of oil-related sites,

Bradford’s oil-rich history including an oil museum was referred to by 75% of respondents.

while 27% mentioned their timber heritage. Historical architecture—cited by 46% of Kane/Mt.

Jewitt responses— closely related to historical downtown, was mentioned by 25% of all survey

takers . Historical businesses and farms were both recognized by 16% of the participants.

Social resources that currently exist were also mentioned in our questionnaires and

discussions. 44% mentioned multiple local clubs and associations that existed in the community

that could help support trail down development, while 28% of the participants noted existing

local trail associations specifically. Trail associations were more heavily recognized in Bradford,

with 67% of responses than in Smethport and Warren with 31% and 38% respectively. Youth

organizations and successful school-related events were also acknowledged by 12% and 8%,

respectively with 35% of Bradford, 25% of Kane/Mt. Jewett, and 48% of Warren respondents

identifying social capacity in their youth population.

Resources Lacking

During our focus group discussions, we encouraged the participants to develop their own

criteria for what they considered to be essential to trail develop development. Collectively,

roughly 60% felt that they had restaurants and specialty stores that would appeal to a tourist

population. But, almost 45% of the Kane surveys mentioned a need for more restaurants in their

community, as well as over 25% of the Bradford and Smethport surveys. Also, roughly 30% of

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combined participants believed that they had the hotels and bed and breakfasts in place to

provide housing to future tourists; this need was mentioned by over 50% of the Warren, Kane,

and Smethport survey responses. Also, 35% of all participants acknowledged a need for more

businesses in their downtown communities. Over 50% of Smethport participants specifically

mentioned the need for businesses, as well as 40% of the Warren surveys. 15% of the

participants from all of the communities mentioned a need for outfitters stores in particular.

25% of the survey respondents, collectively, felt that more advertising was necessary to

promote the area. This was strongly noted by over 50% of the Bradford and Warren populations.

Almost 20% felt that expanding the community’s internet resources could help support this need.

20% also mentioned the need for partnerships within the community to promote cooperative

development, between businesses, organizations, and local government. In Warren, 60% of the

survey responses mentioned a need for local partnerships, while slightly over 20% of Kane and

Bradford participants acknowledged this need as well. Expanding public transportation services

and increasing the number of local festivals and events was almost acknowledged.

Public Opinion

As previously stated, personal and community support is an important component to trail

town development. Support was determined using a Likert scale ranging from 1-10; 1 as the

lowest and 10 as the highest level of support. Participants documented what they believed to be

their own personal level of support, as well as what they perceived to be the level of their

respective communities’ support for trail town development. Overall, the average rating for

personal support was 8.71. Bradford had the highest average of support, 9.43, but the averages

for all participating towns were over 8.11. The amount of estimated community support,

including all participants, averaged out to 6.92. The highest average for community support was

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in Bradford as well, 7.90, and the lowest was in Kane, averaging out to 6. Warren’s average for

community support was 6.92 and the Smethport average came to 6.89.

Graphs/Chart

Bradford Smethport Kane Warren0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

Resources Needed

RestaurantsLiterature/AdvertisingBusinessesPartnerships

28%

8%

12%8%

44%

Recognized Social Resources

Trail AssociationsDay CareYouth OrganizationsSchool EventsClubs/Associations

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2+/mo 1/mo 6-10/yr 3-5/yr Less than 3/yr

Never0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Trail Use

Bradford SmethportKaneWarren

Perc

ent o

f Sur

very

Res

pons

es

Comparing Individual and Community Support

Individual Support

Community Support

109876543210

12

Hotel

Bed and Breakf

ast

Restauran

t

Guides

Outfitters

Grocery

Bakery

Ice Rink

Specia

lity St

ores

Universi

ty

Bike Sh

op

Hospitality

Adverti

sing

Festi

vals a

nd Events

Businesse

s

Public Tra

nsportation

Web/Internet R

esources

Partnersh

ips0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Available and Necessary Resources

Resources In PlaceResources Needed

Resources

Perc

ent o

f Sur

vey

Resp

onse

s

13

37%

27%

25%37%

16%

31%

16%

Recognized Historic Resources

Historic DowntownTimber HeritageArchitectureMuseumsFarmsOil-related SitesHistoric Businesses

36%

14%19%

4%

8%

19%

Recognized Natural Resources

Water Bodies

Fall Foliage

Existing Trails

Diverse Weather

Wildlife

Woodlands

14

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Felt Public Interest

Survey Response

Survey Population

Publ

ic In

tere

st o

n Lik

ert S

cale

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Conclusions

With resource extraction jobs already have been in this area in massive presence, we know that its economic impacts are not permanent. We aren’t trying to say that Bradford, Smethport, Kane and Warren should choose Geotourism over extraction industry jobs, but we are recommending the two co-exist. We are hoping the Trail Central concept will give citizens in these communities more opportunities for economic sustainability. We will know how successful the project is when we are able to measure for benchmarks of sustainability. Charting new business creation, new job creation, new project and grant creation as well as revenue changes in already existing businesses will help to better understand if Trail Central is achieving economic growth. Communities and organizations can use relatively low-cost online surveys as a means of gathering information about community, consumer and business interests. Community organization is going to be the key to the success of these projects. A growth in the number of community organizations related to trail towns will be the ultimate benchmark for the project’s success as social-capital can be one of the most powerful assets any community has. The power of organized people with a goal is a force that won’t be stopped if the communities choose to embrace the identity together. There is no finish line or guarantees in our plan, and there is no blueprint drawn up for success to follow. The ultimate goal is for communities to actively seek economic growth using the resources they already have available to them. Northwestern Pennsylvania’s natural beauty is a resource that can’t be extracted. With the economic history of this area, we can’t look to the same resources time and time again in hopes of sustainability. We also can’t wait for a major corporation to open a company in our communities in order for jobs to appear. We have the resources in front of us to seek out economic sustainability on our own. We recognize both the opportunities for and limits of geotourism as a means of supporting local Appalachian economies and communities; however, we hope to use this as a stepping stone of information to support grant writing and further research to identify and develop assets in McKean and Warren counties.

Addition to the conclusion:

Using the collection of information that we were able to gather as a result of the collaboration of our own empirical data that we collected and the wisdom of other successful trail towns in the Appalachian region, we will then in the future hopefully be able to come up with a comprehensive plan to go about making our project bear fruit. We have laid the ground work. As you saw, the resulting interest in the idea of the development of a trail town and geo-tourism as a possible long term sustainable economic plan, while varying in prospect and scope amongst the different towns from which we collected our data, at least generated some invaluable thought and interest. It is our hope that we are able to capitalize on some of the momentum that we have created. It is our firm belief that the creation of a truly citizen based, participatory, sustainable

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trail town economy is a viable option for people in this area. Geo-tourism is something that not only cannot be irresponsibly exploited and outsourced, resulting in the deathly boom and bust economics that have plagued this area and other parts of the country, the Appalachian region in particular, but that also solves some of the issues of public skepticism and attitude. This grass roots approach, with the aid and support of their local governments, to the development of a trail town will give people in this region a greater sense of ownership and caring of their land and region because their hard work would be directly responsible for helping to make their towns a destination that people want to come and visit. The natural beauty of this area is too great for it not be shared. We make these claims to say, that it is our belief that Mother Nature can be used as a means of creating a descent lively hood in a way that protects her and cherishes her all at the same time. Geo-tourism, and the development of a trail based economy, we believe, is one of the best ways of accomplishing this goal. Our hope, as Pitt Students, is to help facilitate this transition in the best ways that we can. This project has laid a solid foundation and the pillars of sustainable economic growth are ready to be put into place. Here are some of the future steps that we think should be taken to help make this a reality: ……

Report Paragraph

The next steps our group would like to pursue are first, mapping existing and proposed trails. This will allow visitors to see the trails before they head out into the Allegheny Forest and plan their adventures into the towns. Second, establish trail apps and kiosks. Next, identify ways of supporting public education about trails according to the interests of our research partners. By gathering contact information, our group will be able to establish a newsletter that will go out to all of the trail associations, allowing for networking among the social groups. Finally, our group would like to identify the assets more thoroughly and begin an asset inventory for the communities.

Next Steps:

• Mapping Existing and Proposed Trails • Trail Apps and Kiosks • Public Awareness and Education • Networking Tools among Social Groups • Establishing Asset Inventories

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Appendices

B. Phone Survey Questionnaire1. What are the most important aspects of developing a trail town economy?

2. How do you get trail users off the trails and into your towns? (What do goods and services do people look for or demand as consumers?)

3. How do you promote your town?

Prompts: websites, mail, television, contests, advertising in trail media, etc.)

4. How would you characterize public/community support for trail towns?

How did you build community support?

What approaches have been taken to promote public awareness among different age groups or sections of the community?

What are the challenges to building community support?

5. How do you maintain support and communication among the different stakeholders in trail town development?

6. What are the key assets (natural, historic, and/or cultural) that help you promote your town for tourism?

7. What role(s) does local and state government play in supporting trail town development?

8. Do you have any data on the impacts of trail town development that you could share?

C. Responses to Phone Surveys: Successful Trail Towns

Results-Successful Trail Town Phone Surveys

Phone Survey Frostburg, MD

John Kirby City Administrator

1.What are the most important aspects of developing a trail town economy?

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The most important aspect of developing a trail town is to know your customer. Frostburg makes

sure that we understand the nature of our visitors and customers. We make sure that their needs are

meeting and weigh heavily on their opinions and suggestions. Frostburg really tried to cater to the larger

groups that are looking for a weekend event or getaway. This helps to have a more economic impact on

our town and its businesses. The visitors are what make this town so successful.

2.How do you get trail users off the trail and into your towns?

The way we try to get our trail users off of the trail and into the town is with promotions and

packages. We work with the trail organizers to packages tours like hotel and dinning that coincide with

`their special events. Since there is such an elevation difference most trail users either start in our town

and use the shuttle or transportation services, or start at the top and end in our town.

3.How do you promote your town?

Due to the decline in our economy we do not put much effort into our promotions. Our main asset

is using our website to advertise special events and word of mouth. These two are the ways we have

brought in the most business. Frostburg has a Main Street Program where we use some of their budget for

advertising and creating special events that are unique to our town. Most people would be extremely

surprised to see how little we spend on advertising and promotions. It is nowhere near the scale of other

trail towns.

4.How would you characterize public/community support for trail towns?

I would characterize the community support as very slow in the beginning until recently it has

been growing steadily. I think this is due to the benefit that most of the town members are receiving. The

majority of the support is through volunteers and trail organizations putting in the leg work to rally the

community around this idea.

5.How do you maintain support and communication among the different stakeholders in the trail town

development?

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Communication between the stakeholders is mostly run by the trail organization. At least every

month the trail organization, county government, state government, volunteers, and affiliates of the

university meet to discuss the trails and its development; along with special events, new ideas, new

development, etc.

6.What are the key assets (natural, historic, and/or cultural) that help you promote you town for tourism?

The key assets if Frostburg are the trail organization and all of the work that it puts into this town.

Also it is nice because this town has two convergent of tourism that really brings visitors in. These are the

Great Allegheny Passageway and the North Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. These teamed up with

the Frostburg State University bring a steady follow out tourism and visitors into the area. Since we are

fortunate enough to have a Main Street Program it holds special events and two events really bring in a

large number as well, the Car Derby for children and a huge cruise around town of cars.

7.What role(s) does local and state government play in supporting trail town development?

Local and State Government play a minimal role in the actual trail relations part because that is

all maintained by the trail association. Government just relates as a resource for resources and monitoring

for the trail. We try to take a more of neutral approach and wait until we are needed or called upon.

Chamber of Commerce – Damascus, VA

Susan Lay- Executive Director


Susan: Damascus had very little retail businesses before the trail town economy took its shape.

Since Damascus sits at the center of 4 major trails, including the Appalachian Trail, the trail economy was

able to succeed. People developed a shuttle service that would take trail users and their equipment into the

different parts of town.


Susan: The shuttle service was a great way to help transportation of the trail users within the

town. The location of the trails coming right through downtown was the biggest way they got trail users

into Damascus.

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Susan: They have a Damascus, VA town website, each different trail has their own website, VA

tourism department’s website, and the Chamber of Commerce. All of these websites together promote

Damascus as a trail town.


Susan: The people of Damascus were very supportive because they knew that this type of

development would bring an economic boost and allow new businesses, including bed and breakfasts,

outfitters, etc, to form in that town creating jobs.


development?

Susan: The entire community has been extremely supportive throughout the entire process.


Did not get a chance to answer this due to time constraints.


Susan: The local government was very supportive, only concerned with logistics of the projects.

Once they were addressed, full support was given.

8.What were the biggest challenges while developing Damascus into a trail town?

Susan: This insurance for the shuttles created many obstacles throughout the process of

development. Taking care of the visitors needs also was a big concern. For example, parking in the small

towns.

Damascus Business Survey Responses

Quincey's Pizza

Assistant- Manager, Sam.


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Aside from assets to draw in tourists, successful trail towns need to combine the government and

private sector to work towards the same overall goals. Us local businesses do a lot of work with the

chamber of commerce.


People come here for the main purpose of using our trails. Our town is the main gateway point to

the trails. Mostly they come into our town to use our bike shuttle service, which takes people and their

bikes up the hills so they can ride down. Once in town, that is where they stop at our local businesses.

Our town is known as the friendliest town on the Appalachian Trail.


Most local businesses have a website. The town itself also has a website, created by the local

trail organization. We also use radio ads for our business, often in partnership with other local businesses

and restaurants located near us.


Community support for the trails gradually built itself, because the town now thrives on the

tourist population. We only have about 900 locals living in the town, so our town’s economy is

extremely reliant on the trail town idea. There wasn’t much difficulty building support, because the

numbers entering the town did it themselves.


development?

Right now the Town Council is working on getting a representative of each business industry to

attend regular council meetings.


Fishing is big, we have many trout stocked streams and ponds. We also have minor league

baseball and Nascar events within a 30 minute drive. There are many historical properties such as 19th

century Victorian homes within the town. We have a couple bed and breakfasts, along with a church

sponsored hostel for trail users. There are bike shops that make bikes and there are 10 different shuttle

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services to take people between the trails and the town. This is a huge asset because we are located close

to both the Appalachian Trail and the Creeper Trail.


No real state government support, but the local government is very involved in developing and

maintaining the trail town environment.

D. Selected Transcripts from Town Hall Meetings*

Bradford Quotes

There’s variety of trails right here in the city that could be packaged with some stays in hotels and dinner at local restaurants. A lot of people who do these vacations are looking for a 1 or two day getaway. That’s one thing that could be packaged locally.

we challenge people in the community to hike all of the trails, we have a geo-caching component as well with that and part of that is to raise funds for the organization and put together a little celebration, get together and award prizes, they take pictures on the trails and they get entered to win some specific prizes from that, so it’s really an event that gets people out and using the trails.

We do have a lot of students that do student projects such as tree planting, trail cleanup, education using tree identification guides on campus

From the shots you showed from Damascus, it looked like there were a lot more restaurants and hotels than what we have currently and if we became a trail town destination point we would probably see more pressure putting on those types of facilities develop.

People coming into the area want to have the services offered to them and you also want to have people that are good at dealing with people. You don’t want somebody at your front door that won’t be able to make those people feel at home.

Kane and Mt. Jewett Quotes

Another thing is promoting the seasonality and integrating the season, selling this as walkers in the nice seasons but let the snowmobilers in the winter.

One thing that is grossly missing in our areas is rest stop amenities; this is largely dependent on the local business owners. Public amenities are needed too.

Warren Quotes

.. The idea of reservoir is to have more connectivity and have trail corridors to connect these things.. Even if it’s relatively close need some way to tie things together…

One thing we have to do is let the people coming through let them know were the business are and let them know through brochures ,.. Get a kiosk next to the river ,.. let them know , if you’re not of this area you don’t really know..

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…There should be an interpretive signage plan for all these people, one that explains all that they have to offer.

…Forest is full of small quaint town each have own identity… …my community is vastly excited to have a meeting like this… PA Wilds puts on an annual trails summit, we have one every two years, this year were

going to have a trail town conference next year… I don’t know that anyone has mentioned the ATV trails, there is a group of [people] that

are willing to travel for that amusement. …a very good trail book that you mentioned earlier, has all highlights of the mapped

trails and areas that should be a very useful tool, wonderful thing to have, the tourist bureau sent us a package with all types of information inside of it, takes a lot to develop it but would be a huge asset..

I would like to see it in the media about the town and things that are available in the town, personal interest that the public would see, lack of exposure

The one drawback to the town is the fact that we need to market together, maybe an educational outlet outreach. Start with small business owners, a lot of small business forget that there profit comes back from tourism

owners get so caught up on regulars But learning about what’s going on gives better chance to promote it... paper and town

will promote it Awareness enables us to go through and see what we have to offer, we can do many

things, start at the trail heads, let them know how to get to information...

* Technical problems prevented recording the Smethport meeting.

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