Greetings to all. We hope you are enjoying this summery summer. This e-newsletter is intended to provide an update on the recent work of the Northern Forest Tourism Network, and to invite those of you who are interested to join in the work moving forward.
Background: The primary work of the last few months has centered on convening this network at the Summit for the Northern Forest on May 3-4 in New Hampshire. Summit participants included both old and new network members and we wrestled a bit to clarify our shared understanding of the purpose of this network. Clarity of purpose is critical, and the Summit was a reminder that we need to do a better job of keeping that purpose front and center. We are including a summary purpose statement here, and encourage you to scroll through the Pages on our Blog that include background on the network, tourism topics that network members have written about, and more.
Purpose: The purpose of the Northern Forest Tourism Network is to create collaborative capacity across the Northern Forest Region in which multiple stakeholders join together around shared tourism goals to create models that attract, serve, and sustain visitor interest in rural locales. The Network’s intended outcomes include increased tourism capacity through shared marketing, training, research, and product development; best practices at the community, county, state, and regional levels; and rural capacity gains for the long-term through increasingly successful collaborations and partnerships.
The Work: In the end, Summit participants crafted preliminary action plans for three priority areas of work: Research, Training, and Product Development. Those of you who have been involved in this network will recognize these as the same priority areas that have consistently risen to the top of our list, so the Summit has affirmed and brought new energy to our existing trajectory.
We now have parallel work plans for each of our three priority areas. We encourage you to review the NFTN Work Plan v3, focusing on the area(s) that are of greatest interest to you. Also, you may want to review the Summit Archive Notes for some context. And we invite you to consider how you might join in the work to move our shared agenda forward. Please contact Kate Williams or Mike Wilson if you are interested in participating more directly in any way.
Network Mapping Survey: Finally, as part of our ongoing work to better understand and deliver on the potential of this network, we are creating a network analysis map. The survey many of you completed in the winter / early spring has provided valuable initial information for this mapping project. View a compilation of the Winter 2011 NFTN Survey here. We will be sharing a brief follow up survey with you in early September to gather an additional level of data to help us all better understand the dynamics and opportunities for our regional network. Stay tuned, and thank you in advance for your participation.
As always, your input and contributions are welcome. And please feel free to share this e-mail with other tourism practitioners. As our work together takes greater definition, we are grateful to those of you who have stayed involved, and we welcome those who are interested in joining us. Please don’t hesitate to contact Kate Williams or Mike Wilson with any questions.
Warmly
Kate Williams, Chair (Executive Director, Northern Forest Canoe Trail) and
Mike Wilson (Northern Forest Center and Maine Woods Consortium, ME)
For the Northern Forest Tourism Network
