Join the Ohio Humanities Council and other community and neighborhood activists, preservationists, and public historians for converstations about Civic Tourism this summer. Dan Shilling, former executive director of the Arizona Humanities Council, defines civic tourism:
Civic Tourism is about appreciating tourism as a public good . . . practicing it as a public art. Civic Tourism can help communities preserve cultures, protect the environment, save historic districs, encourage citizenship, and foster a healthier quality of life.
You can also read up on Dan Shilling’s proposals in Civic Tourism: The Poetry and Politics of Place (2007). Shilling encourages communities and citizens to pull “together contemporary economic, social, and environmental place-making tenets, and then using tourism to unlock their potential and enhance their integration.” The focus, Shilling writes, should be on “using values-based strategies that do not answer solely to the economic bottom line, but to social and environmental bottom lines as well.” Past conversations identified three strategies for “a restorative tourism”:
- rethink economics
- connect to the public
- invest in the story
Among the catalog of resources that Shilling directs us to, check out National Geographic’s Center for Sustainable Destinations which identifies some best practices and principles for community minded tourism. The Center promotes Geotourism, defined as:
Tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place—its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents.
Curious to learn how our community can benefit from civic tourism? “Civic Tourism–Crafting a New Vision for Ohio” comes to the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park on July 14, 2008. The conversations draw inspiration, at least, from the deliberative democracy discussion model developed at the Kettering Foundation. Join the Ohio Humanities Council here in Dayton or at one of the four other regional conversations. Read more about the program and download the registration form from the Ohio Humanities Council site.
[...] Read more: Conversations about Civic Tourism [...]
Would this be similar to the concept of heritage tourism?
Heritage tourism is certainly a part of civic tourism but it might encompass economic history or environment centered tourism. With civic tourism, the goal is to give the people of the community a voice in shaping tourism to meet their local needs such as strengthening communities, restoring and preserving neighborhoods, creating employment, developing parks, etc.