A small community adopts tourism as a development tool - Johnson County, Tennessee

Business America, April 20, 1992 by David L. Edgell, Sr.

Johnson County, Tenn., as one of America's first and last frontiers, has captured the hearts of visitors from across the country as well as from around the world. When Daniel Boone developed the "Wilderness Trail" two hundred years ago, he could never have foreseen that there would one day be thousands of tourists seeking their own discoveries in this beautiful part of northeast Tennessee, and in so doing helping to revitalize an economy which had gone stale in the 1980s.

Today, the world over, communities are tapping natural, cultural, and historic resources in rural areas; and rural tourism has become an important tool for economic development. With a little optimism, lots of creativity, and an energetic leadership, local communities such as Johnson County are utilizing "rural tourism" as a means to develop and diversify their economies by creating jobs and bringing in new resources. They are providing that rural areas can integrate innovative tourism programs with other efforts to achieve economic development.

Johnson County's tourism successes offer a model for many communities across the country which may be concerned with the decline of an agricultural or industrial economy. This small, rural community has used tourism to stimulate positive economic activities which create new jobs and new businesses. The people of Johnson County have recognized increasingly that residents and workers of busy metropolitan cities are seeking rest and relaxation in the serene environment of rural areas. And, further, that international visitors to the United States are expressing their interest in touring the countryside and seeing a "Rural America," better described as the "Real America" in the sense of cultural and historic development of the country. This effort in Johnson County epitomizes the current decade's interest in an attractive natural environment offering scenic and historic settings.

Rural Tourism Recognition

The problems that plague rural America today are extensive. Until the 1980s, unemployment rates were consistently higher in urban areas than in rural areas. However, during the 1981-82 recession, rural unemployment rates rose faster and peaked higher than urban unemployment rates.

This phenomenon of high unemployment rates in rural areas is a significant break from past patterns, ad represents a warning flag that fundamental conditions have shifted in rural America. For example, during much of the 1980s, about 400,000 rural residents packed their bags and left rural America each year to seek employment in the cities. Although agriculture remains the most important industry in rural America, it now employs relatively few people, and that trend is likely to continue. Only approximately 400 of America's 2,400 rural countries are now considered "agriculture dependent."

White house recognition of tourism as an important tool in rural revitalization efforts came on Jan. 22, 1990, when the President ordered implementation of the Report on Rural Economic Development for the 90s. This report explains that any new lifeblood for rural America will be found primarily in off-farm employment opportunities, especially in industries such as tourism, retirement living, and commercial recreation, which all serve to bring additional income to rural communities. In remarks on Oct. 28, 1991, the President state: "More and more rural communities are making tourism a part of the economic development option for the nineties. And the U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration, along with other government agencies, is working to put small-town America on the tourist map. As part of that initiative, federal agencies will provide leadership for educational outreach programs in rural tourism development."

The U.S. Department of Commerce has been in the forefront of developing various tourism strategies to assist in implementing the President's Initiative on Rural America. Two important strategic steps of the Department's policy include:

* An interagency effort by the National Tourism Policy Council (chaired by the Secretary of Commerce) to develop a national policy for encouraging the growth of tourism-related businesses in rural America; and

* Directions for the U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration (USTTA) to develop an educational outreach program to provide training for rural communities interested in tourism as an economic development tool in rural areas.

USTTA has provided the major leadership for implementing these tourism strategies. One of USTTA's most important responses was announced by Under Secretary of Commerce for Travel and Tourism John G. Keller on Dec. 3, 1991, when he stated that: "Tourism can play a critical role in revitalizing rural America." Towards that goal, USTTA organized a "Train and Trainers" rural tourism conference, scheduled to take place on April 22-24, 1992, at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Kansas City, Mo.

Johnson County, Tennessee

Drive through Johnson County nowadays and you see few remnants of those hard times almost five years ago when the unemployment rate stood at 30 percent. Located in the northeastern-most corner of Tennessee, the Appalachian Mountain County borders both North Carolina and Virginia.