Annual/Termination Reports:

[11/28/2023] [08/16/2024]

Report Information

Participants

Brief Summary of Minutes

Accomplishments

Publications

Impact Statements

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Report Information

Participants

Arbogast, Douglas West Virginia - West Virginia University
Eades, Daniel C West Virginia Cooperative Extension
Chase, Lisa Vermont - University of Vermont
Curtis, Kynda* Utah - Utah State University
Entsminger, Jason* Maine Cooperative Extension
Jada Lindblom New Hampshire Cooperative Extension
Goetz, Stephan Pennsylvania - Pennsylvania State
Jasper, Cynthia R* Wisconsin - University of Wisconsin
King, Brian Texas AgriLife Research
Lee, Seunghoon Texas AgriLife Research
Ann Savage North Carolina State University
Melissa Weddell University of Montana
Elena Bigart University of Montana
Yeager, Emily * East Carolina University
Jake Powell* Utah State University
David Conner* University of Vermont
Renata Endres* University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Brief Summary of Minutes

Summary of Minutes from June 11, 2024 Annual Meeting

 

The meeting was held from 2:00-3:30 pm EST on June 11 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Burlinton, VT in conjunction with the 2024 Travel and Tourism Research Association conference

 

The meeting was called to order by Doug Arbogast at 2:00 PM EST.

 

1. We began by welcoming folks to the meeting, reviewing the meeting agenda, and reviewing the NE2251 integrated, multi-state group objectives.

 

2. Update from NIFA National Program Leader Ashley Mueller

 

• NIFA updates provided by Ashley Mueller via document circulated to participants


• Funding updates and opportunities


• Upcoming opportunities and announcements.

Purpose of HATCH

• Encourages integrated research-extension but research dollars aren’t directly provided


• All LGUs have access to support cross-state collaborations BUT how that money is distributed/used varies by institution
  
  
  
  • At UVM appointees at Ag Experiment Stations can access funds but Extension cannot.
  
  
  • Kynda (Utah State) can use funding for multiple projects for travel, but at UNLV could only to travel to one meeting regardless of multiple HATCH funding lines.
  
  
  
  

 

Work that’s happening

• Please provide Doug with grants/contracts; publications; presentations – especially those that highlight integrated work

 

• UNH Extension – Outdoor recreation, time in nature. Working with WVU and VT on tourism projects. New Hampshire (Historic) Barn Trail; DIRT trail and outdoor rec groups to foster more partnerships and build capacity (6 workshop series; internal grant funding to support). Workforce development partnership with CTE. More interest in “outdoor recreation” than “tourism”

 

Downtowns and Trails program engaging business and volunteers (Shannon Rogers(?)) and statewide rail trail projects and impacts. Outdoor economy academy to help local stakeholders ID gaps; working with business school to better aggregate services within the university and state to have a “one stop shop” for available services.

 

• UVM – Sustainability metrics (NIFA grant); agritourism AFRI grant with Claudia Schmidt at Penn State + Jason Entsminger; similar work with Dee and Jodi Smith at WVU; webinar series with NET agritourism working group; international presentations in Italy; in indicators for sustainable food systems/production; consumer preferences and demand for agritourism; pursuing NIFA funding for multistate work.

 

• Univ IL – interested in partnering with Lisa and co on agritourism projects; current research on agritourism liability exemptions laws and impact on number of participating farms (national, statewide analysis)

 

• NC State: Consumer demand specialty crop block grant brewers and grain producers, consumer WTP for local malts, etc.; project with state tourism board on retirement communities paired with industry research to fill gaps and meet state grants; First Impressions program; working with Ext leadership on starting outdoor rec program team in Extension – pursuing seed funding to understand county needs, talking to John Green at SRDC about scaling to southern regional.

 

• University of Montana – push to invest more east of continental divide in order to address over-tourism in western parks; surveyors across 10 regions at rest areas, etc – have a dashboard – tourism attitude data since 1992; need for grant capacity building – feeding data to local groups but creates a lot fo work for the lab/center.

 

• Texas: Looking at rural tourism bi resilience through the pandemic, qualitative moving into mixed methods – local partnerships (Taco Trails!), leadership, networking, biz owners “positive emotions,” other key characteristics of social support and how they impacted local resilience - 19 interviews with retail, bars, restaurants, community partners; Tourism Friendly TX Communities interagency agreement between agrilife and gov’s office;

 

• Utah State: New experiment station project drink tourism and craft beverages – presentation at AAEA; small grant internal not funded but looking at AFRI opportunity; Kynda’s work on consumer preferences could support the work the agritourism folks are doing; Jakes GNAR initiative – online asynchronous for local leaders to learn about planning in gateway communities; in fall of this year helping Instituto of outdoor recreation and gateway communities Basecamp in Moab, UT.

 

• UWI: Minority owned businesses resilience in face of COVID (Jason + Stephan + Heather + Daniel should learn more about this).

 

• Maine: Rec economies and agritourism. RecEcon – using EDA funding to work with state office of outdoor recreation to develop 10 year roadmap for rec econ development. Draft rollout at Maine Outdoor Econ summit in November. Then working with in and out-of-state partners on implementation. Hired post-doc with background in sustainable entrepreneurship sustainable biz model innovation in outdoor rec sector, piloting in Maine then scale to nationwide funding opportunities. How are biz addressing climate change and PFAS in gear manufacturing (so more BEA OR than just tourism hospitality). Applying USDA MOU to National Parks since Maine doesn’t have a lot of USFS land – should Dept of Interior folks be engaged in how that work (with USFS) plays out to see how they can implement and improve? Agritourism fact sheets released with Claudia Schmidt and NERCRD; working to link research and practice in agritoursim with Extension, campus, ag. experiment station, and state partners.

 

With Claudia Schmidt, Specialty Crop Research Initiative funding to inventory business model structures in agritourism and how are firms innovating around those models.

 

Penn State (NERCRD) and WVU have continued their integrated research-teaching-outreach collaboration on the TRIP grant, including mentoring of post doc and graduate students. This grant also includes UVM and UNH? You could also say that your ARISE grant was submitted, with collaborators including SRDC and NERCRD and...?

 

Common Themes, Hot Topics,  and areas for Collective Work:

• Academy’s and labs are recurring theme (Montana, WVU, NC State, UNH; Mellissa Weddell: people from chamber (as example) to DMO but don’t have the skills to do destination management (or even marketing) can we build training to help fill that capacity gap. Charlie – need to share resources, teach for/with each other; role for RRDCs to host sharing platforms/infrastructure.

 

• Refining and communicating Extension’s value proposition to gateway communities (and agencies) to better engage other federal partners and communities. NPS already has several programs that speak to these themes; Jake and Utah already working in NPS gateway communities but not necessarily with NPS itself, although RT(?)CA has helped with program development; also how can lessons learned be applied to helping with recreation of private lands – more case studies? --

 

1. Discussion on the 2024 annual meeting aligning the National Extension Tourism and NETTRA conference in New Hampshire


2. The meeting was adjourned at 3:30 PM EST

Accomplishments

<p><strong>NE2251 Objectives:</strong></p><br /> <ol><br /> <li>Assess, inventory, and classify the impact of current and potential external shocks on rural tourism at the multi-state level</li><br /> <li>Investigate the resilience, adaptability, and recoverability of different components of the rural tourism system (i.e., suppliers, buyers, and destinations)</li><br /> <li>Identify, implement, and evaluate strategies for tourism businesses and destinations to cope with external shocks.</li><br /> </ol><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> <p><strong>Projected Outputs</strong></p><br /> <ul><br /> <li>Publications in scientific articles/reports Webinars/workshops</li><br /> <li>Crisis recovery frameworks and theory development Inventory of tourism assets in rural areas under examination</li><br /> <li>Assessment of tourism performance pre, during, and after crisis Creation of a rural tourism resilience index dashboard Graduate students engaged in multi-state projects</li><br /> <li>Extension programs engaged</li><br /> <li>New Extension programs developed</li><br /> </ul><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> <p><strong>Projected Outcomes or Projected Impacts</strong></p><br /> <ul><br /> <li>A better understanding of the role of the tourism industry in local and regional economy and how dependency on tourism sectors influences local/regional economic resiliency.</li><br /> <li>Development of future funding proposals that promote collaborative research and extension activities on tourism resiliency and community sustainability in the U.S.</li><br /> <li>Development of best practice toolkit for rural tourism responses to external shocks. Development of strategies to recover from externa shocks.</li><br /> </ul><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> <p><strong>Key Milestones</strong></p><br /> <ul><br /> <li>(2022):Apply for competitive funding to support objectives &bull; Fine-tune the project objectives and methods with input from Extension specialists &bull; Identify and recruit participating states and investigators &bull; Recruit research participants &bull; Identify agency/community partners</li><br /> <li>(2023):Implement research activities for each objective &bull; Disseminate practical findings through Extension research partners</li><br /> <li>(2025):Continue with years 2023-2024 research activities &bull; Continue extension and project results transfer &bull; Disseminate outcomes through academic and practical outlets &bull; Plan for next phases</li><br /> </ul>

Publications

Impact Statements

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