Travel & Tourism Program Goals

Partnerships with tourism industry are essential components of USDA Forest Service mission delivery in sustainable use, community development and visitor management.  Our policy is to work with our interagency federal tourism partners, state tourism offices and the Departments of Commence (DOC) and Transportation to promote sustainable natural areas development and visitor use through agreements such as; Federal DOC Tourism Policy Council; Western States Tourism Policy Council and Southeast Tourism Policy Council.  Our agency is also a member of Travel Industry of America (TIA) to assist coordination with industry-wide sustainable "best practices" initiatives.

Key Contact for National Tourism and Byways Programs:  Floyd Thompson, (fthompson02@fs.fed.us) (202) 205-1423; FAX (202)-205-1145

Current Forest Strategy for Sustainable Tourism Program Delivery (this is a very large file)

**Other key program areas for travel, tourism and marketing our federal places are: Naturewatch (http://www.fs.fed.us/outdoors/naturewatch/), Heritage Expeditions/Passport in Time (PIT) and the National Recreation Reservation Service (NRRS) (www.recreation.gov)

**Tourism research and marketing information is available at Forest Service Research (NSRE) (www.srs.fs.usda.gov/trends/) and visitor use and economic  monitoring data (www.fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/nvum/)

**Forest Service and BLM Recreation Report - "Meeting the Challenge of Recreation and Tourism in the West.  Background data from presentation compiled for the WSTPC forum held in Reno NV May 15-17, 2005.

Listed below are key program resources and partner links.

Travel, Byways, & Tourism Guides

• NEW! Motoring in the Eastern Sierras Guide
• NEW! Sustainable Tourism Planning for Protected Areas (IUCN)
• Volume 2 - "Special Places" Requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader
  or (text version).
• Volume 1 - "Special Places" Requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader
  or (text version).
• National Forest Scenic Byways Guide  Requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader (sample in www.byways.org)

Tourism Planning & Marketing Models

• DOC - Travel Tourism Marketing Manual
• Austin/Tonopah Tourism Framework Document Requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Example from Australia - Recreation Nature Tourism Planning
• Charles Co. MD Nature Tourism planning report by Fermata Inc

Travel & Tourism Resources (external sites)

• Community Tourism Assessment Handbook
• Travel Industry Association
• Sustainable Tourism Forum
• Department of Commerce, Tourism Industries
• State Tourism Information
• Tourism Best Practices
• Department of Transportation, Federal Lands
• DOT, National Scenic Byways Program
• Heritage Tourism
• Nature Tourism
• Ecotourism - The International Ecotourism Society
• Understanding Tourism Revenues for effective Mgt Plans
• Agritourism Resources
• Civic Tourism Planning
• Electronic Research Resources for Tourism Professionals
• Promoting Rural Tourism