Scenic Byway News, Adirondack North Country Association

ANCA Scenic Byways Site Map Search Contact Us

Adirondack North Country Association

For Visitors

Scenic Byways

Maps

For Byway Organizers

Scenic Byway Community Announcement

Olympic Scenic Byway Marketing Project - Meeting One

February 22, 2007 - The Adirondack North Country Association sponsored a marketing meeting for Olympic Scenic Byway communities in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, St. Lawrence, Lewis, and Jefferson counties. Attendees learned how the promotional project will stimulate interest in their area of the route and encourage new and repeat visitation across the six counties.

You are encouraged to review the following report to learn more about the Olympic Scenic Byway marketing project and how it can benefit your community.

Meeting Notes Report from Fuller Communications, Project Facilitator

On Thursday, February 22, 2007, 14 Olympic Scenic Byway stakeholders successfully moved the Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) Scenic Byways 2006-2007 Marketing Project forward. Participants at the half-day networking, information, and exchange session at the Goff-Nelson Library in Tupper Lake, came from Essex, Franklin, Lewis, Jefferson, and St. Lawrence counties.

Representatives included the Tug Hill Commission, Essex County Planning, the Arts Council for the Adirondacks, towns, chambers of commerce, ANCA, community development specialists, an historic preservationist, and a tourism promotion consultant. Five attendees had been involved in the preparation of the Corridor Management Plan.

The objective of this and subsequent meetings is to empower community leaders and business owners to achieve marketing goals identified in the Olympic Scenic Byway Corridor Management Plan, completed in 2004. Specifically to:
* Build awareness of ways to use the byway designation to positively impact economic and community development
* Encourage intercommunity awareness, cooperation, and collaboration between byway stakeholders and communities to use the byway designation to attract visitors and encourage greater lengths of stay.

Sharon O'Brien, Scenic Byway Coordinator, ANCA, presented details on the three part $160,000.00 marketing campaign that includes design of web pages for the Olympic Scenic and Adirondack Trail byways, the expansion of the publications Arts, Crafts, & Foods along the Scenic Byways of the Adirondack North Country, the development of recommendations for future interpretive signage for the Olympic Scenic and Adirondack Trail byways and the development of an interpretive brochure for the Adirondack Trail byway. (Visitors' guides for sections of the Olympic Scenic Byway have already been developed.)

During the session participants found three activities most effective.
* When they introduced themselves, they described one thing they would tell a visitor to enjoy in their community, and shared one activity/place/experience they enjoy in another Olympic Scenic Byway community.
* Jon Kopp of Tupper Lake spoke about his community's Ten Rivers Region Map project. Because the initial creation of the project was funded through ANCA, it was possible to encompass a natural geographic area, rather than limit coverage to town and county political boundaries. The grant paid for the costs of design, production, and printing for the first edition. Now that design and production is complete, second and future printing will be paid for by local business owners and organizations, who will have the opportunity to buy ad space -- a cost efficient way to get great exposure and return on marketing investment.
* Participants gained a sense of the power, effectiveness, and fun of collaborative thinking to make the byways program work for them. In random groups they were asked to come up with a project that would help two or more Olympic Scenic Byway communities or regions engage visitors. These projects are described at the end of this report. As new funding is available, it's possible that ANCA will prepare grant applications for one or more of them.

Sharon O'Brien of ANCA, provided an overview of the New York State scenic byway program - what it is, how it works, objectives, types of projects, and state and national collaborations. She reviewed ANCA's role and the development and outcomes of the Olympic Scenic Byway Corridor Management Plan. She provided overviews of several funded projects that will launch in 2007 including an interactive bicycle atlas, the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program Byway Community Outreach Project, and the creation of a Dude Ranch Trail Corridor Management Plan.

Participants received information packets with the Olympic Scenic Byway vision, theme, goals, and intrinsic qualities for visitors' experiences and corridor wide goals that can benefit every community.

Susan Fuller, of Fuller Communications in Malone, was the facilitator. Fuller pointed out the benefits for stakeholders and stakeholder communities along the Olympic Scenic Byway.

These include:
* Direct and indirect tourism revenues; recent market research showed a 20% increase in visitation in communities on byways.
* Encouraging economic development that is consistent with sustainable growth that will ensure intrinsic quality resources are maintained.
* Community enhancements such as preservation of historic buildings, downtown revitalization, and cultural and recreational opportunities that benefit community members as well as visitors.
* The potential of strong consistent NYS DOT route identification signage for the byway route, which is being planned, and for Tourist Orientated Directional Signage- especially important for businesses and attractions located in the Adirondack Park.

Based on current tourism trends in general, and recent research about visitors' reasons for coming to our region visitors want:
* Safe, personal, interactive, and accessible experiences
* Quality, authenticity, a range of activities, choices in accommodations, and personal contacts
* Activities that involve them in nature, agritourism, cultural heritage; provide opportunities for health, tranquility, and relaxation.

In particular the Olympic Scenic Byway communities and attractions have those qualities, offer the resources, and can take advantage of the growing interest in "green tourism" and travel experiences that the rapidly increasing number of Boomer Travelers are seeking.

Participants had an extensive discussion of ways to help more communities, attractions, and other stakeholders take advantage of their byway designation, and the potential for tourism. A key focus was ways to get more people involved.

Ideas included:
* More education for front line staff at all ventures where tourists have interaction with local people (gas stations, drug stores, etc. as well as known attractions) will increase understanding of the importance of tourism as an economic factor, and build enthusiasm for local resources. For example, the Tupper Lake Chamber of Commerce and the Wild Center are working together to train staff and volunteers in communications skills and to develop awareness of, and familiarity, with tourism related resources.
* Help all community members be aware of and promote their local resources, attractions
* Encourage more word of mouth
* Create tourism "ambassador" programs
* More public relations, presentations about the many benefits of tourism to communities
* More involvement of service organizations, community movers and shakers, like Rotary
* Piggyback events, create themes to encourage tourism visitation to more communities
* Reward participants from communities for their tourism efforts, such as gifts of museum tours.
* Offer each byway community an interpretive piece, for example "What brought people here."
* Provide opportunities to help smaller hamlets and communities (who have very limited human and monetary resources, compared to some of the larger areas) promote themselves.
* Develop funding for paying for training and assignments for guides for community tours and byway resources, since volunteer resources are often already maximized.

At the one-hour interactive brainstorming exercise, teams experienced the process of interpreting their resources from the perspective of intercommunity cooperation using the Olympic Spirit theme and the NYS DOT Route logo featuring the Torch image.

Suggestions for projects that could be further developed to be proposed for action, and ideas that could be incorporated in future planning:

1. (Proposed) Olympic Scenic Byway Arts, Studio, and Theater Cultural Theme Tours
Byway End-to-End Bus tours in shoulder seasons (late fall, spring) led by trained guides, and a self-guided map will also be available for visitors who want to drive their own vehicle any time of year.

Themes and features will include:
* Architectural heritage (including churches, bridges, buildings, etc.)
* Studios, galleries, museums, historical societies
* Community resources such as theaters, opera houses
* Visitors will stay at participating historic B&Bs along the route
* There will be evening theater or concert events in overnight each venue
* Participating restaurants will offer discounts to group
* A special one week Olympic Torch Festival of the Arts will include open studios by artists, a scavenger hunt, a "passport" to collect stamps at each venue visited, people could pick specific events or do the whole trail, rewards for completed passports
* A drawing for participants for free return tickets for the next year's festival.

2. (Proposed) Olympic Scenic Byway Environmental Awareness Week
Byway communities will develop programs and events that educate visitors (including local residents) on natural resources and environmental issues.
* Local guides and experts will make presentations, give lectures, etc.
* Include Northern Forest Canoe Trail and communities
* Discover Nature packages along bike routes and canoe routes
* Package offerings for lodging and food
* Spring would be a good time -"Nature Opening" encourage off season visitation
* Promote existing and develop new wildlife refuges, walking, and biking trails

3. (Proposed) Fire and Light Torch of Discovery Tours
These tours will celebrate the spirit of people in the communities along the Olympic Scenic Byway by telling how and why the communities were settled, and by relating that to the present. Topics could include logging; hunting and other sports; the role of water; architectural heritage,

Each byway community and venue will develop self-guided tours, as well as participate in byway wide bus tours, and create events and recreational activities that feature the Fire and Light Torch of Discovery concept.

The tours carry a symbolic "torch of discovery" as they move through the byway communities, end to end, which is symbolic of the communities' as they relate to the Olympic Scenic byway theme: The Olympic Spirit. Activities could include:

* A series of events, i.e. "marathons" to encourage people to move along the byway seeking icons/prizes while shedding light on the paths of discovery and area attractions
* The Tour will include encourage use of water, hiking and biking trails, as well as the traditional road.
* Each community will train members to celebrate their own local and near by places and interpret them to visitors. In each community a 'step on guide' will provide information on his or her community.
* A certification program for a minimal level of training and credentialing.
* Historical societies, similar groups, will be engaged.

These tours will be organized as long-term multi-seasonal annual events, similar to the Tupper Lake Woodsmen Days and the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival, to encourage visitors to return year after year to experience new activities under the Torch theme. Regular participation in scavenger hunts similar to those in traditional car or bike rallies, for example, could lead to earning Torch Bearer trophies.

In her closing remarks Fuller stressed that effective marketing of the Olympic Scenic Byway requires collaboration, cooperation, and partnerships within, and between, byway communities. Successful projects need creativity, connections, commitment, pride, passion, and perseverance. The Olympic Scenic Byway Corridor Management Plan is a great blueprint to achieve these.

At the end, participants indicated they had truly enjoyed the process, learned a great deal about byway designation benefits, and formed partnerships with other stakeholders for future byway activities.

The Adirondack North Country Association is committed to economically viable communities and a rural quality of life. For more information about ANCA, visit www.adirondack.org.

Sharon O’Brien
Scenic Byway Coordinator
Adirondack North Country Association
28 St. Bernard Street
Saranac Lake NY 12983
anca-obrien@northnet.org
518.891.6200
f518.891.6203
www.adirondack.org
www.adknccrafts.com