Last week, two local tours caught my eye. No, not local as in “my town,” local as in “taking your local people to see what’s local.”
Hamilton County, Indiana, was taking their tourism staff out for a tour:
Some of our staff is touring the county today to get acquainted w/ Hamilton Co.’s history! What are your fave historical attractions here?
— Hamilton County CVB (@8GreatTowns) June 6, 2013
For tourism staff, imagine how much more they can say about local attractions when they’ve just been there. Imagine how much better they can do in social media interactions with the history fresh on their minds.
And Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada (where I spoke in January), was taking their entire economic development team around: Planners, Building Inspectors, EDOs, Heritage & Culture, Bylaw.
Tour guide Chris Baird leads us across #norfolkcounty today checking out latest development twitter.com/investnorfolk/…— NorfolkCounty EcDev (@investnorfolk) June 6, 2013
I suggested they follow up with a tour for their local media, educators, business owners, or bankers. They play a big part in economic development, too.
Remember:
- Locals suffer from “never been there” syndrome. They may live right next to an attraction, but they’ve never been there.
- Things change. Who ever told you small towns never change was lying. Small towns change, and pace of change is faster than ever. I’ll bet even you would be surprised what’s changed in your small town in just the past five years.
What locals will you take on your next local tour?
New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.
- How small town businesses can market to remote workers and turn them into new customers - May 15, 2023
- Survey of Rural Challenges 2023 results - May 8, 2023
- Rural and small town ideas from the OU Placemaking Conference IQC 2023 - April 5, 2023
- Rural tourism trends say small towns are still cool - March 27, 2023
- Move Your Money and Bank Local - March 22, 2023
- Using a building as a warehouse or storage in a small town? Put up a sign - March 13, 2023
- How to get customers in the door of small town and rural retail stores - February 19, 2023
- Check your small business website for outdated pandemic changes, missing info - January 31, 2023
- Rural Tourism Trend: electric vehicle chargers can drive visitors - January 15, 2023
- 2023 trends for rural and small town businesses - December 26, 2022