California Cultural and Heritage Tourism Symposium – Meet Chico, California

California Cultural and Heritage Tourism Symposium – Meet Chico, California
Feb 2 // Joanne Steele // Dunsmuir, California
CATEGORY: Rural Tourism

I’m blogging from the California Cultural and Heritage Tourism Symposium.

By no means a small town, with a population of around 75,000, it has a small town feel. It sits in the middle of northern California’s agricultural lands, so it feels rural.

There are things we all can learn from this town.

John Vallani of 100 Best Art Towns in America has named Chico number 10 in his top 10 Art Towns in America. This town celebrates the arts like no other, with events, galleries, theaters, an inviting environment for artists, school programs and more.

Be like Chico – celebrate your local arts.

Chico also celebrates its heritage. I’m staying at the local Quality Inn that carefully restored and kept the old kitschy Thunderbird sign. The downtown has a nice small-town feel with tons of small locally-owned stores that are supported by the locals!

The numbers of beautiful old, carefully restored homes is huge. And these are not just museums. A significant number of them are located near the local university, and are student housing!

Be like Chico – celebrate your heritage.

You can read all of Joanne Steele’s posts on Rural Tourism Marketing on her Rural Tourism Marketing Blog.

See all posts by Joanne Steele.

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COMMENTS

Laurel MacMillan says
02. 2.10 // 01:11 PM

And for those in Oregon...grants are available for Cultural Tourism projects from the Arts Commission. The deadline just passed for this year (Jan. 30th) but it is never too early to start planning for next year.http://www.oregonartscommission.org

Laurel MacMillan says
02. 2.10 // 01:21 PM

Also, just saw this resource: Three regional Oregon heritage round-ups will take place during April and emphasize tourism for heritage organizations. The roundups are scheduled April 9 in Oregon City, April 22 in Jacksonville and April 29 in La Grande. More info: http://www.oregon.gov/OPRD/HCD/OHC/Conference.shtml

Joanne Steele says
02.10.10 // 08:55 AM

One way for small towns to get an early start on preparation for submitting a grant is to use the Kansas Rural Cultural Elements model for assessing your town. Go to http://kansassampler.org/rce/ to learn more about what Kansas is doing, and be sure to use the little Cultural Elements graphic on the lower right sidebar to get a better understanding of each of the 8 cultural elements they look for. It's a great way to build enthusiasm about all those gems in each of our towns that we look at so often we stop "seeing" them! Sharing them through tourism is just one possible next step, for towns that are still assessing how they feel about tourism.

Dawn Fazende says
02.22.10 // 12:25 PM

What about local events like mine: The 16th Annual Wesak Celebration In Sacred Mount Shasta California Will be held May 28-30, 2010 $275 until March 15th - $300 after March 15th

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