New Tourism Toolkit Helps Tribes with Tourism Issues

The National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, a companion organization to the State Historic Preservation Officers, has recently launched a Tribal Tourism Toolkit at http://www.nathpo.org/Toolkit/NATHPO.pdf. The Toolkit provides solutions to tourism problems for different tribes.

“Some tribes consider tourism one of their economic development priorities, while others only live with and tolerate visitation and may not want to increase it, preferring simply to manage it,” says Wilson Martin, Utah State Historic Preservation Officer. “The approaches to tourism development and management are as unique as the tribes themselves. Yet some tribes have succeeded in adding tourism to their economic development mix in a way that affirms the tribal community and improves the quality of life on the reservation.”

More people visit Indian country every year. They may come for any number of reasons: recreation, business, gaming, visiting friends and relatives, culture, scenery, and curiosity.

“Although the Toolkit addresses many kinds of tourism, cultural and heritage tourism are fast-growing segments of the tourism industry,” says Martin. “Cultural and heritage tourists usually have and spend more money. And they stay longer.”

Tribal Tourism Toolkit outlines steps to tourism development. It spends considerable time on cultural and historic preservation and on how to develop marketing plans. Perhaps most important, it provides a guide for financial and technical assistance.

The new Toolkit joins a growing base of resources that help businesses and communities develop cultural and heritage tourism:

§ The Utah Heritage Tourism Toolkit (http://history.utah.gov/httoolkit/) provides a multitude of helpful tools and is a good companion to the Tribal Tourism Toolkit.

The Cultural Heritage Tourism website at http://culturalheritage.utah.gov/ is a gateway to information about existing programs, opportunities, and technical assistance within state government that relate to cultural and heritage tourism.
The Utah Travel Council markets heritage tourism at www.utah.com/culture.
The ongoing development of heritage areas within the state is enhancing the public’s awareness of Utah as an outstanding heritage destination.

As the state looks to its economic future, Utah finds itself with significant tools to help the development of heritage cultural tourism.

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