Heritage tourism is hot

American Demographics, Sept, 1996 by Rachel Dickinson

The National Trust for Historic Preservation and its corporate partners are helping communities capitalize on traveler interest in history and culture.

It's not easy to generate the money and interest to maintain and rehabilitate hundreds of historic places and structures nationwide. Now the National Trust for Historic Preservation has found an ally in this mission--tourists. Heritage tourism seeks to draw visitors to historic and culture sites. This idea is as old as Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, but travelers are showing increased interest in educational experiences while vacationing.

"Aging baby boomers are interested in their cultural roots," says David Listokin, a professor at the Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University in New Jersey. "They have greater interest than their parents in things historic and in preservation."

Listokin conducts ongoing research on consumer participation in heritage tourism and the economic impact of their spending on nearby communities. Reliable data on heritage tourism are sparse, he says. But the economic rewards to communities that successfully promote a historic or cultural site could be great. "If 10 percent or even 5 percent of gross tourist dollars are spent on heritage tourism, that would not be a small number for a community," says Listokin.

Historic and cultural destinations aren't as popular with leisure travelers as cities, visits to family and friends, beaches, and lakes. Yet they are on the minds of a significant number of travelers. Forty-five percent of U.S. adults planning a pleasure trip in spring 1996 said they intended to visit a historic site on vacation, according to the Spring 1996 Travelometer Survey. The study is conducted by the U.S. Travel Data Center for the Travel Industry Association of America. An almost equally large share of leisure travelers planned to visit a cultural site, at 41 percent.

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Consumer interest in heritage tourism has captured the interest of some heavy-hitting corporate sponsors. American Express Travel Related Services underwrote a special project by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to help communities develop their historic and cultural sites. Getting Started: How to Succeed in Heritage Tourism is a 48-page color booklet that outlines five principles of successful heritage tourism, and four steps to opening, maintaining, and marketing a site. The company also awarded the trust a grant for developing a video aimed at the same audience.

Alamo Rent A Car, Inc. gives the trust $300,000 annually as part of its Preserve and Protect America Project. The project encourages private-sector sponsorship of community restoration projects. In 1994, the hotel chain Best Western International developed an education program for children with the trust. Children who stayed at Best Western hotels received a pack of Heritage cards depicting historic sites across the U.S.

Enthusiasm for heritage tourism by the public and corporations has boosted the confidence of those who operate heritage sites. More than three-fourths of historic attractions predicted their attendance would rise in the next year, according to a 1995 survey of 350 sites by the National Trust and the American Association of Museums. Less than 2 percent projected attendance declines, and the balance thought attendance would be stable. A large share of cultural sites, such as museums and gardens, also predicted attendance increases, at 77 percent.

Industry experts may think middle-aged baby boomers are behind growing travel to historic sites, but the people behind historic places are banking on motor-coach travelers, who are primarily adults aged 65 and older. Sixty-eight percent of sites named motor-coach travelers as a growth market for them, compared with 50 percent who named student groups, 46 percent families, and 45 percent seniors.

Yet for an historic or cultural site to effectively draw visitors, there has to be more than a sign reading "George Washington Slept Here," says Listokin of Rutgers University. "Communities need to develop a critical mass of activities around historic sites, including services like restaurants and shops," he says. "And because the public is sophisticated and knowledgeable, they have to be sold on what is particularly unique about the site."

For more information on heritage tourism, contact Amy Webb at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, 910 16th Street, Suite 1100, Denver, CO 80202; telephone (303) 623-1504.