Get a 360-degree view of your tourism assets
Our tourism assessment program mobilizes communities interested in assessing and developing their community assets for tourism. The program brings together community knowledge and University resources.
With education, research and facilitation support from our educators and tourism specialists, your community will:
- Create an inventory of local tourism assets
- Assess tourism assets from local, visitor and expert perspectives
- Discover opportunities for tourism development
- Identify action steps for sustainable tourism development
This robust tourism assessment delivers a 360° look at your community’s current tourism assets and potential for tourism development.
Our process
The tourism assessment process includes the following:
Community members identify local assets. These include:
- Natural and built attractions
- Services
- Facilities
- Human resources
- Events
Other documents and reports (e.g., comprehensive plans, past studies) are also gathered from the community.
This creates a baseline of information for the leadership committee and expert team. It also helps ensure your tourism development efforts align with the community’s values, goals and plans.
Mystery visitors provide the perspective of someone visiting your community for the first time. We select visitors that match your community’s tourism goals. They visit the community and provide feedback about the community’s tourism assets and their experience as a visitor.
A team of community tourism experts visits your community to assess local assets. The Tourism Center builds a team with expertise specific to your community’s assets and interests.
During the visit, these experts facilitate discussions with community members that identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for tourism in the community.
We provide a written report with findings and suggestions to help your community identify local goals for tourism development that align with community values. In a facilitated conversation, local leaders will select short and longer-term actions to build and enhance tourism in your community.
Community success stories
Read sample reports from communities that have completed a tourism assessment:
How to get started
Contact the Tourism Center to learn more about the program.