This story appears in the
February 2000 issue of
Entrepreneur.
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Soaking up the living history of a town and its defining culture
has become an integral part of U.S. travel. According to a survey
from the Travel Industry Association, 92.4 million adults in the
United States included cultural or heritage activities on their
trips, with growth and spending patterns expected to deliver a
market of more than 130 million heritage and cultural travelers by
2002.
In preserving these portals to the past, such as the old
industry factories of Pennsylvania or the Turner Sculpture Gallery
and Decoy Factory of Virginia, the balance between tourism and the
preservation of history offers small-town entrepreneurs and history
buffs a chance to show off their local pride to a growing
audience.
"While some states have always marketed their his-tory, the
`heritage tourism' and `cultural tourism' buzz-words have
caused a resur-gence of energy," says Mar-tha Steger, director
of public relations at the Virginia Tourism Corp. "And
it's benefited those [states] that hadn't started packaging
their heritage experiences."