Tag: progress

The Tourism Project: What are your thoughts?

What is the tourism project?

Recently, I have conceptualized a new writing project that, for now, is intended to be an objective, research-driven essay about tourism and life in small- and medium-sized towns.  I’d like to gather as many perspectives as possible. I’ve put together a brief survey for you to provide yours.

The survey won’t take you more than five minutes to complete.

Other than asking you for your general stance on tourism and the economy, the survey has a few basic questions to help steer the course of the project.

What is it like to live in a tourist town?

What is it like to work in a tourist town?

What is it like to raise kids in a tourist town?

What is it like to retire in a tourist town?

Please help me spread the word about this project, and please do share the link with folks you think would be interested in having their say.  Here’s a QR code anyone can scan to access the survey on a smartphone.

QR code for tourism form

Feel free to fill out the survey if you feel so inclined, and feel free to contact me directly or comment on this article if you’ve got questions about the project and my intentions.

Depending on the direction this project takes, there may be much more here than just the initial essay that gets published in a magazine or journal (and eventually on my blog).  I hope it gets bigger.  I’d like to move it toward a book about tourism, with in-depth examples and case studies from various municipalities around the United States, or perhaps even the world. We are also planning to see this site and take help from professional tour guides

Initially, though, I’m hoping to focus on municipalities in the western part of North Carolina, and the southwestern section of Virginia, since those are the areas that are most readily accessible to me from my home base in Glade Valley, North Carolina.

Here’s a printable PDF flyer you can download and share, and print then hang on a wall anywhere you’d like: community center, place of worship, town hall, school, coffee shop.  Tourism Project Flyer

Finally, if you’re interested in collaborating on this project, I’m definitely interested in hearing from you.  I’ll need some help conducting research and interviews for this project.

Thank you!

The Future of Elkin North Carolina – Empty Stores Downtown

Like many small towns in the United States of America, my hometown, Elkin, North Carolina, is facing many problems in the post-industrial experience of the twenty-first century.  There don’t seem to be many good options for what this and so many other towns can or should become, now that singular industries employing thousands of people, as did Chatham Manufacturing12 during its heyday, are no longer a viable option for small towns in the United States.

Empty Stores

In recent months, there has been a substantial increase in empty stores on Main Street in Historic Downtown Elkin.  There are enough empty stores now that people have begun to take notice and discuss this issue in continued passing conversation on a regular basis.  Recently, a meeting was convened to discuss the economic future of Downtown Elkin, specifically as a result of this recent increase in empty stores. Continue reading The Future of Elkin North Carolina – Empty Stores Downtown