The American Indian Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has released a manual to help communities recognize and develop their potential for cultural tourism. The Center has sent it to a number of American Indian communities and made it available as a pdf download on their website.
The publication, entitled “A Handbook on American Indian Cultural Tourism in North Carolina,” contains useful information gleaned from a workshop on cultural tourism that the Center held in June 2009. It identifies types of cultural tourism, offers guidance on resources and best practices, and presents step-by-step advice on planning, marketing, and funding a tourism project.
I find the “Sample Community Inventory” (Appendix E) especially interesting. This list will remind communities of all the valuable assets in their areas that might merit protection or promotion. The activity of prompting community members to recognize the value of the landscapes, languages, architecture, cultural events, and other assets in their own backyards reminds me of the work of civil rights activists and public historians who encourage people to recognize the power and value of their own voices and memories. (See “My History Is America’s History” and “Bitten by the Public History Bug.”)