(May 12, 2016) A room full of tourism advocates, economic development professionals, business owners, officials, consultants and interested parties first had to come to a conclusion: none of them had seen it all.
A program offered by Conservation Community Consulting, funded through a combination of grants and the Town of Snow Hill, brought everyone together for two days last week with the goal of developing an eco-tourism marketing strategy for the town. The two-day seminar gathered together local stakeholders to discuss the opportunities in the county seat area.
These experts knew what they knew — but didn’t know what they didn’t know.
“Today was amazing,” Jim Rapp, half of the Conservation Community Consultants team, said. “All we did was get all the stakeholders together and jumped on a bus. We weren’t on the road more than four hours. Many of us thought we’d seen it all, but it quickly became apparent we haven’t really begun to tap into the market.”
Each site — no more than 20 minutes by car from Snow Hill — had something to offer.
“I had no idea there were 50 miles of connected trails in the Pocomoke State Forest, for example,” Rapp said. Shad Landing, Public Landing, Furnace Town and the area’s boat launches each had something new to offer to at least one participant.
“We looked at all those –ing words tourism folks love: hiking, boating, fishing, biking, horseback riding — if we learned one thing today it was about horseback riding,” he said.
Mike Scholfield, manager of the Chesapeake and Pocomoke State forests, said Furnace Town has become a hotspot for horse trailers. He said there were about 20 trailers parked just last weekend.
“Utilization is up because of online maps and websites. We have lots of partners in mountain biking and equestrian hobbies — the word has gotten out,” Schofield said.
And then there’s the Pocomoke River.
“The Pocomoke is almost always paddle-able,” Rapp said. “Over on the bay side it takes more skill, but you can explore two completely different ecosystems within about 20 minutes of each other. That doesn’t happen everywhere.”
Also, the river offers a host of other opportunities.
“There’s no other river on the shore you can paddle for days without ever having to drive a car,” Rapp said. Adventure campers could be drawn to the area, he explained, by leveraging the volume of protected lands, some 40,000 acres in southern Worcester alone, nearly all of which are accessible from the Pocomoke River.
Paddling a boat can be its own reward, but there are other activities available that, to locals, can appear run of the mill, but enthusiasts seek to discover.
“We saw 53 species of birds today,” Dave Wilson, the other half of Conservation Community Consulting, said. “We weren’t even birding.”
Many of the participants had at least one thing take them by surprise.
“I think it was fascinating the amount of amenities that are within a 10-mile radius. It kept going and going and going. Frankly, it wore me out,” Michael Day, the town’s economic development consultant, said.
Lisa Challenger, Worcester County tourism director, was similarly surprised.
“For me, it was very energizing to see new things I wasn’t aware of, and things I was aware of but hadn’t seen. Now I have lots of ideas on how to promote these natural opportunities,” she said.
Wilson said he was invigorated by the diversity of the participants.
“I think what was really nice to see all our tourism folks here — from Sussex County, Snow Hill townspeople, the Deputy Director of Economic Development for Worcester County, John Azzolini as examples. It’s a really nice mix,” he said. “There are lots of opportunities to sell Snow Hill really well. There’s lots of mix and match.”
A program offered by Conservation Community Consulting, funded through a combination of grants and the Town of Snow Hill, brought everyone together for two days last week with the goal of developing an eco-tourism marketing strategy for the town. The two-day seminar gathered together local stakeholders to discuss the opportunities in the county seat area.
These experts knew what they knew — but didn’t know what they didn’t know.
“Today was amazing,” Jim Rapp, half of the Conservation Community Consultants team, said. “All we did was get all the stakeholders together and jumped on a bus. We weren’t on the road more than four hours. Many of us thought we’d seen it all, but it quickly became apparent we haven’t really begun to tap into the market.”
Each site — no more than 20 minutes by car from Snow Hill — had something to offer.
“I had no idea there were 50 miles of connected trails in the Pocomoke State Forest, for example,” Rapp said. Shad Landing, Public Landing, Furnace Town and the area’s boat launches each had something new to offer to at least one participant.
“We looked at all those –ing words tourism folks love: hiking, boating, fishing, biking, horseback riding — if we learned one thing today it was about horseback riding,” he said.
Mike Scholfield, manager of the Chesapeake and Pocomoke State forests, said Furnace Town has become a hotspot for horse trailers. He said there were about 20 trailers parked just last weekend.
“Utilization is up because of online maps and websites. We have lots of partners in mountain biking and equestrian hobbies — the word has gotten out,” Schofield said.
And then there’s the Pocomoke River.
“The Pocomoke is almost always paddle-able,” Rapp said. “Over on the bay side it takes more skill, but you can explore two completely different ecosystems within about 20 minutes of each other. That doesn’t happen everywhere.”
Also, the river offers a host of other opportunities.
“There’s no other river on the shore you can paddle for days without ever having to drive a car,” Rapp said. Adventure campers could be drawn to the area, he explained, by leveraging the volume of protected lands, some 40,000 acres in southern Worcester alone, nearly all of which are accessible from the Pocomoke River.
Paddling a boat can be its own reward, but there are other activities available that, to locals, can appear run of the mill, but enthusiasts seek to discover.
“We saw 53 species of birds today,” Dave Wilson, the other half of Conservation Community Consulting, said. “We weren’t even birding.”
Many of the participants had at least one thing take them by surprise.
“I think it was fascinating the amount of amenities that are within a 10-mile radius. It kept going and going and going. Frankly, it wore me out,” Michael Day, the town’s economic development consultant, said.
Lisa Challenger, Worcester County tourism director, was similarly surprised.
“For me, it was very energizing to see new things I wasn’t aware of, and things I was aware of but hadn’t seen. Now I have lots of ideas on how to promote these natural opportunities,” she said.
Wilson said he was invigorated by the diversity of the participants.
“I think what was really nice to see all our tourism folks here — from Sussex County, Snow Hill townspeople, the Deputy Director of Economic Development for Worcester County, John Azzolini as examples. It’s a really nice mix,” he said. “There are lots of opportunities to sell Snow Hill really well. There’s lots of mix and match.”