Tourism workshop highlights marketing, promotion strategies

Historic tourism is the hottest segment of the tourism scene today and Kinston is poised to take advantage of it.

That was the message delivered this week by Lewis C. Forrest, executive director of The Mattamuskeet Foundation, businessman and author. Forrest led a tourism workshop sponsored by Lenoir Community College's Small Business Center, Cultural Heritage Museum and Kinston-Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce.

Heritage tourism in North Carolina is growing at six times the rate of all other segments of the tourism industry, Forrest said. Tourists who want to know more about the nation's past are visiting heritage sites in record numbers. Forrest said they are searching for a sense of place that comes from understanding the people who shaped the history of the places they visit.

Developing a strong tourism industry creates new jobs, Forrest said, but marketing and promotion is a key activity. He stressed the role of advertising, merchandising and public relations in getting out the word about a community's historic assets.

A key strategy in implementing a tourism-training program is to identify the community's 10 most popular attractions, sits or activities. Forrest said he had seen the Neuse II, a replica of the original ironclad CSS Neuse Civil War gunboat. The Neuse II should be the focus of Kinston's historic tourism plan, he told the workshop audience.

Training-based tourism strategies instill pride and bring the community to life for everyone involved, he said. Tourists and other customers return to a helpful organization, site or business.

Forrest warned, however, "If you can't deliver what you promise in your ads and promotion, the best marketing effort in the world will fail. Becoming a reliable source of good information for tourists is the single best way to promote your tourism organization or tourism activity."