Northern Forest Tourism Network
Collaborating to Create a World Class Destination – Join Us!Cross Sector Initiatives
By Diane Litynski, Business Management and Entrepreneurship Studies, Paul Smith’s College, Paul Smiths, NY.
In November 2008, the Northern Forest Center hosted a Summit for the Northern Forest, at which time some “cross sector” opportunities and challenges were identified. The opportunity of greatest interest and potential for the tourism sector was (and remains) potential collaborations with Higher Ed, particularly around tourism training.
Thanks to leadership Paul Smith’s College, collaboration between regional tourism and higher ed practitioners is beginning to gain momentum. Specifically:
Paul Smith’s College, a liberal arts and science, culinary and hospitality, and forestry and natural resource management school located in the heart of the Adirondacks, has begun an initiative that will bring together tourism efforts throughout the northern forest region of the US, with the hopes of providing economic opportunity to the region.
Members from the Northern Forest Center, Northern Forest Canoe Trail, Northeast Kingdom Travel and Tourism Association, and additional partners from the Northern Forest Higher Education Research Network (NFHERN) are pooling their resources to determine how synergies can be realized through partnering. Current efforts are underway during September and October 2010 to develop an inventory of each player’s programs. Next steps are planned that will determine the most economic and efficient use of each one’s efforts to produce economic and other outcomes across the Northern Forest Region. A defined program, that incorporates each entity, is planned to be presented at the next annual NFHERN conference, to be held in May 2011.
