Tourism professionals get insights at Galveston conference

Event hosted Extension, other U.S. and foreign tourism experts   

GALVESTON – Texas’ travel industry generated 630,000 jobs in 2014 and $70.6 billion in direct travel spending, according to Dr. Miles Phillips, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service tourism specialist, who presented at the recent 2015 National Extension Tourism Conference in Galveston.

Sixty-four tourism professionals from the nation’s Cooperative Extension System and tourism-related businesses and organizations representing 25 states and three foreign countries attended the two-day conference.

“We addressed tourism development issues and the training programs currently in place for Extension personnel and how those opportunities might be expanded in the future,” Phillips said. “We also addressed methods of determining the economic impact of tourism and doing visitor studies, as well as opportunities for marketing and rural development.”

On the first day of the conference, Carol Patterson, president of Kalahari Management Inc.  based in Calgary, Canada, presented the keynote presentation. The day also included a panel discussion, poster session and concurrent educational sessions.

“There was excellent discussion on the value of Extension tourism efforts and how these could be applied in other states,” said conference co-chair Doug Arbogast, rural tourism specialist at West Virginia University Extension Service. “The conference provided a unique opportunity to develop regional collaborations and meet with leaders in Extension, tourism consultants and others to see how we might improve our tourism products.”

During the concurrent sessions, Phillips and James Kidda, program coordinator for AgriLife Extension’s Long Acres Ranch located southwest of Houston, presented on the ranch and its unique role as an experiment station and “new model for ecotourism.” Individually, Phillips presented on wildlife guide training programs in collaboration with convention and visitors bureaus, professional guides and the national Extension network.

“I was interested in hearing about tourism marketing and the festivals and other tourism activities that draw people to smaller towns,” said Ginger Easton Smith, AgriLife Extension agent for Aransas County. “Here we typically get people coming in for a day for birding or to fish, so the conference gave me ideas I can share with others on how we might add other opportunities that would make people want to extend their visit.”

“The event is a great opportunity for academics and non-academics to get together and compare notes on what works and what doesn’t work in tourism,” said Dr. Stephen Komar, a crop physiologist with Rutgers University Cooperative Extension and conference co-chair. “I’m an Extension crop physiologist but we dabble in tourism and are interested in how New Jersey can benefit from agritourism. Attending the conference provided me with some useful ideas.”

The second day’s activities began with a presentation by featured speaker Mary Mulvey, CEO of Ecotourism Ireland, who presented on the European perspective on agritourism and ecotourism.

This was followed by concurrent sessions and workshops on rural tourism; agritourism; community and regional planning and development; tourism education, training and certification; tourism research and evaluation; and tourism marketing and promotion.

In addition to conference presentations, attendees were also offered the opportunity to participate in various educational field programs, including beach and bay guided interpretive walks, a Sea Turtle Lab tour, Moody Gardens behind-the-scenes rainforest exhibit tour and a boat tour interpretive program.

“The conference provided some important discussion and ideas on sustainable tourism,” Phillips said. “We appreciate that so many people attended the conference and want to also express our appreciation to those in the Texas Sea Grant program and to the Texas Master Naturalists who collaborate with AgriLife Extension and do so much to support and promote tourism.”

For more information on National Extension Tourism, go to http://extensiontourism.net.