Driving Tours--Cultural Tourism by Car

Today I want to discuss the importance of organizing cultural driving tours--again. We talked about Georgia's Literary Trail and Massachusett's Quilt Trail but I want all of us to think about why a car would pull off the interstate and visit your town or region. According to the National Trusts for Historic Preservation, 118 million people visit at least one cultural or historic site on their vacation every year. Why not one in your community? With gas prices rising, I think we have to be doubly smart about cultural tourism--that is, value and interest for the time and money spent. Here are a couple of examples. Virginia has done a good job with its "Virginia is for Lovers" them and developed a number of driving routes. Brandywine has an interesting battle tour. Or in one of the most clever, Edenton, NC's tour of the stolen North Carolina Bill of Rights.

This is an inexpensive way to get into the cultural tourism business and create ripple effect for area businesses. We will feature more sites this week but this is a must for any place that wants more tourists.