Activities
Free Presentations
The institute will gladly provide on-site presentations for your community, organization, or business at no charge. While the presentation is free, the institute does request that your organization cover minimal costs of travel, lodging, and food and beverage expenses for the presenter. Upon invitation to speak to your organization, you may choose to receive one of the following presentations:
- Best Practices in Tourism and Destination Management: Thirty-three best practices case studies in tourism and destination management. Categories include research, funding, professional development, information dissemination, advocacy, Web marketing, and sustainable tourism. (To download, click here.)
- Best Practices in Southern Tourism: Best practices in tourism from 16 southern states.
- Developing Sense of Place in Your Community: How to use sense of place to attract tourists to your community or destination.
- Fundamentals of Destination Management and Marketing: The basics of destination management, including service, sales, marketing, research and performance measurement, communications, product development, technology, human resources, member care, financial management, board governance, and alliances.
- Introduction to Tourism Marketing: The basics from the marketing plan to the 7 “Ps” of tourism marketing: Place, Price, Promotion, Product, Programming, Packaging, and Partnership.
- Introduction to Sustainable Tourism: Topics include ecotourism, heritage and cultural tourism, and agritourism.
- Introduction to Tourism Planning: Topics include planning for tourism sites, destinations, and regions.
- Introduction to the Hospitality Industry: Topics include guest relations and food service.
- Measuring Tourism’s Economic Impact: Step-by-step methods of measuring the impact of tourism on your economy.
- South Carolina Tourism: The Economic Development That Won’t Go Offshore! Find out why tourism will be a major economic force in South Carolina well into the 21st century. Also includes practical tips for developing tourism as an economic development strategy in your community.
- Scenic Byways: The Way to Go! Topics include the national scenic byways program, designation criteria, and tips for success.
- US Travel Trends: A comprehensive overview of the tourism and travel industry in the United States.
The following presentations about recent institute projects are also available:
- A Strategic Tourism Marketing and Development Plan for Kershaw County, South Carolina: A project including asset inventory and evaluation, market segmentation, and the creation of future economic impact scenarios.
- A Feasibility Study for the Golden Isles Parkway: A feasibility study for developing Georgia’s Golden Isles Parkway (U.S. 341) as a regional tourism asset.
- A Feasibility Study for the Woodpecker Trail: A feasibility study for developing Georgia’s Woodpecker Trail (Georgia Route 121) as a regional tourism asset.
- Georgia’s Lake Hartwell Region: Opportunities for Further Development A project to identify opportunities for further tourism development in Stephens, Franklin, and Hart counties for the Lake Hartwell Regional Marketing Alliance.
- Heard County: Opportunities for Tourism Development: A project to identify opportunities for tourism development in Heard County, Georgia, including creation of an eco-tourism product.
- Lower Chattahoochee Regional Marketing Study: A project to identify potential tourism marketing segments in Stewart, Randolph, Clay, and Quitman counties. A lifestyle segmentation analysis was conducted that determined what types of people do visit, and are likely to visit the Lower Chattahoochee region.
- Resident Attitudes and Tourism Planning in Charleston, South Carolina: This study explored the differences in attitude toward tourism development among Charleston’s neighborhoods, based on attachment variables, as well as the role of community attachment in predicting these attitudes, especially regarding residents of historic districts. Tourism planning guidelines were formulated based on the results of this study.
To request a presentation, please click here.
Workshops
These presentations are also offered in the form of a weekend workshop for residents, local leaders, community officials, and other stakeholders. A tourism assessment is also offered as part of these workshops. At the conclusion of the workshops, participants will receive a certificate showing that they completed training from the University of South Carolina’s International Tourism Research Institute:
An example schedule of the workshop series:
- Monday: Tourism: The Economic Development That Won’t Go Offshore!; Sustainable Tourism Development
- Tuesday: Scenic Byways: The Way to Go!; Sense of Place
- Wednesday: Tourism Planning; Hospitality 101
- Thursday: Tourism Marketing; Fundamentals of Destination Management
- Friday: Wrap-Up; Tourism Opportunity Assessment