Rural Innovation Institute

Preparation of this guide involved a number of people who deserve special note.  From Texas A&M University, Clare Gunn, Carson Watt and Sarah Richardson were the major writing contributors.  Bruce Wicks coordinated editing.  Over the years, Susanna Coppernoll, Rebecca Childress, LeAnne Alsup, Daniel Cox, Cheryl Gaudiano, Donnell Ocker, Julia Hamilton, and Jennifer Dittrich were responsible for producing the drafts and final visual product.  The 1999 edition was reviewed and edited by LeAnne Alsup Romo, Carson Watt, and Tazim Jamal of the Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University.  Janice Langlinais of the Texas Department of Economic Development, Tourism Division also reviewed and edited the document.

Texas Agricultural Extension Service
Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas 77843-2261

Texas Department of Economic Development
Tourism Division
P. O.  Box 12728
Austin, Texas 78711-2728

The Texas Department of Economic Development is an equal opportunity employer program.

Auxiliary aids and services will be made available upon request to individuals with abilities.

Tourists' expenditures filter through communities to create a chain of economic and social action.  Some tourism jobs are filled by youth and other traditionally disadvantaged labor markets.  Tax revenues generated by tourists' expenditures can contribute to supporting public facilities and services that a community might not otherwise afford.  Playing host to "guests" often fosters a sense of community identity and pride.

This publication has been prepared to help you consider and initiate tourism development within your community.  Five purposes were kept in mind:

Section I          To introduce tourism as an emerging industry in the United States and as a strategy for economic development in Texas.

Section I presents some basic facts about tourism in Texas and provides important tourism definitions.

Section I I        To help you understand how tourism functions as a system of interconnected parts ¾ attractions, services, transportation, communication, and markets.

These parts together create tourism "products," (i.e. mixtures of experiences and benefits) that tourists receive.  Section II will help you to understand the tourism system and the ways those community tourism products can be developed and marketed to select tourist markets.

The benefits that tourism delivers should be compared with your community's specific needs to determine if it is an appropriate economic development alternative.  Section III of this publication will help you evaluate the potential benefits and costs of tourism development in your town.

Section IV       To present a planning process for tourism development that will help you establish tourism goals, assess, and build upon your community's special characteristics to achieve these goals.

While every community has its own unique attributes, general guidelines for tourism planning are applicable to all.  Section IV of this publication outlines the steps of the tourism planning process.  Worksheets are provided to help you apply the process to your community’s location, leadership, financial capabilities, and markets.

Section V        To assist you in identifying important tourism networks that can complement your efforts.

Networking involves linking with other agencies and organizations to maximize efforts, share ideas and approaches, and learn from the experience and perspective of others.  Networking is vital to effective community, regional, and statewide development.  Individuals and organizations that represent each of these areas should be part of your tourism network.  The companion publication Sources of Assistance for Tourism in Texas identifies organizations that will help to meet your ongoing tourism information needs.

This publication has been prepared for business and community leaders within governmental, commercial, and non-profit organizations.  These leaders include:

• councils of government, elected officials, and public administrators

• chambers of commerce, and convention and visitors bureaus

• tourism-related business owners and managers

• concerned citizens

•   local and regional planners, and economic development officials

While many of the concepts, issues, and processes described within this manual will help individual organizations and businesses to more effectively respond to tourism, this publication has been prepared with a community approach in mind.  That is, it focuses on the cooperation between public, commercial, and non-profit interests to achieve tourism benefits for an entire community¾rather than just a single organization or enterprise.  Processes and methods for gathering resident support and involvement are included as a key aspect for ensuring that tourism development contributes to the well being of those who host the visitors in their town and regions.  Special emphasis has been placed on assisting smaller Texas communities.  However, the concepts, issues, and processes presented here are relevant to communities of any size or location.  The focus of this publication is on the development of pleasure travel in your community, although the same process is appropriate for business travel markets.