Report from Rhodes: First Impressions
Welcome to my first installment of a series on lessons learned while living in Greece for a month. We spent the majority of our time in Old Town Rhodes, an incredible World Heritage Site. The experience allowed me and my husband, John, a first-hand opportunity to learn more about Greek life, Greek traditions, Greek food […]
Recognizing Willa Cather
On June 7, 2023, the state of Nebraska unveiled a statue of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Willa Cather as the newest contribution to the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. I had the privilege of working with the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and the Willa Cather Foundation in 2017 to investigate how […]
Streetside Storytellers
Crossroads of the American Revolution National Heritage Area commissioned Hargrove International to create a virtual instruction program for local site managers and volunteers to create new tours focused on stories related to the Revolutionary War era. The five-week online instruction helped a dozen docents research new stories, develop their presentation script, and learn from international […]
What is the difference between Cultural Tourism and Heritage Tourism?
The United National World Tourism Organization defines Cultural Tourism as “movements of persons for essentially cultural motivations such as study tours, performing arts and cultural tours, travel to festivals and other cultural events, visits to sites and monuments, travel to study nature, folklore or art, and pilgrimages.” Heritage Tourism, as defined by the National Trust for Historic […]
What are the Five Steps of Cultural Heritage Tourism?
These five steps are modified from the original four steps created during Hargrove’s tenure at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The fifth step, manage for growth and sustainability, was added to ensure destination and site managers focused beyond the initial development phase – to constantly manage the carrying capacity and measure the impact against […]
What is Cultural Heritage Tourism?
“Traveling to experience the places, artifacts, and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past and present. It includes visitation to cultural, historic, and natural resources.” (Source: National Trust for Historic Preservation)
New Jersey’s Revolutionary War Sites: Site & Visitor Readiness Assessment
The Crossroads of the American Revolution Association and the New Jersey Historical Commission recognized the need for a baseline assessment to determine the visitor readiness and necessary enhancements of the state’s 150 sites related to the American Revolution. Hargrove International teamed up with Clarke Caton Hintz and Hunter Research for a year-long project to assess […]
Louisiana Colonial Trails Byway Assessment
On-site assessment of this state byway to determine visitor readiness, potential themes, and suggested markets to target for visitation. The resulting report and presentation workshop delivered a set of recommendations for product development and experience improvements/enhancements, itineraries to attract RV and motorcycle markets, and suggested themes for group tours. ( June 2019)
New Report on Declining Historic Site Visits
Bad news is never welcome. Opening my inbox to read about a new report from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (HI) project on declining visitation to historic sites was indeed disappointing, but not unexpected. The report, citing visitation from 1979 to 2012, found that “with each birth cohort Americans of all […]