March/April 2001
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Aero-tourism Lands in Rural Pennsylvania
Tourism is an important component of Pennsylvania’s
rural economy. In 1999 alone, the Pennsylvania Department of Community
and Economic Development estimated that travelers to the state’s
rural areas spent more than $4.35 billion.
But who is visiting Pennsylvania’s rural areas?
Of course we know of the nature lover, the history buff, and the
sportsman and woman – but what about pilots and their passengers?
In rural Pennsylvania, there are 55 public airports,
which catered to an average of 43 operations, or landings and
take-offs, every day in 2000.
Many of the pilots and passengers who use these
airports have the potential to be an important component to rural
tourism and may be the next group that rural tourism agencies
put on their radar screen.
Let's call it aero-tourism
Aero-tourism, as we’ll call it, is a relatively
new market niche in the tourism industry. Since there is no standard
definition for the concept at this time, the Center for Rural
Pennsylvania will loosely define the concept as getting pilots
and passengers from local airports to surrounding areas of interest.
While it is unlikely that aero-tourism will dominate
the rural tourism market, it has the potential to play a supporting
role. And, like other rural tourism niches, such as nature-based
tourism, heritage tourism, and farm vacations, aero-tourism needs
to be further developed and marketed to the traveling public.
To better understand this niche and learn more about
its growth potential in rural areas, the Center for Rural Pennsylvania
analyzed the following four sources of data:
* The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s
(PennDOT) Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Airport Directory,
published by the Bureau of Aviation in 1999, which lists licensed
public airports within the state, the services they provide, hours
of operation, and any amenities provided;
* Data from the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA), which was used to identify the number of licensed pilots
by county and by states surrounding Pennsylvania, including Delaware,
Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia;
* A report by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
(AOPA), which was used to examine the demographic and socio-economic
characteristics of member pilots; and
* An informal phone survey of rural tourism promotion
agencies (TPA), which focused on the role that public airports
had on tourism in these regions.
The analysis says . . .
The results of the analysis include the following:
* In 1999, there were 134 public airports in Pennsylvania.
Rural areas had 55 airports, or 41 percent of the state total.
Urban areas had 79 airports, or 59 percent of the state total.
* Only three airports in rural areas have regularly
scheduled flights: Bradford Regional Airport in McKean County,
Dubois-Jefferson County Airport in Jefferson County, and Venango
Regional Airport in Venango County. In urban areas, there are
13 airports with regularly scheduled services.
Airport use
* In 2000, the average rural airport had nearly
16,000 operations, which are landings and take-offs. This is an
average of 43 operations per day.
* Excluding the two busiest airports in the state
— Philadelphia International and Pittsburgh International — the
average urban airport has twice as many operations as the average
rural airport.
* In rural areas, 7 percent of all airport operations
occur at scheduled service airports, 50 percent occur at business
service airports and 43 percent occur at general service airports.
Airport facilities & services
* Many airports provide a variety of facilities
and services, including everything from lights on the runway to
aviation fuel to hanger rentals. Rural airports have slightly
more airport facilities and services than urban airports.
* The least available services at both rural and
urban airports are repair facilities followed by electronic navigation
aides, and aviation fueling facilities.
Visitor facilities & services
* More than 45 percent of rural airports do not
provide any food services. Food services include on-site restaurants,
snack bars, vending machines, and even nearby restaurants.
* According to PennDOT’s data, rural airports have
fewer nearby hotels or motels than urban airports. However, travelers
are more likely to find a restroom in a rural airport than in
an urban one. In addition, rural airports are more likely to have
a public telephone than urban airports.
Ground transportation
* In most cases, airports are not located in commercial
centers. Once a pilot lands, getting from the airport to his or
her final destination requires a car, taxi, or bus. According
to PennDOT’s data, many pilots and passengers who land at rural
airports have few options. Only two-in-five rural airports have
taxi services.
* Car rentals are available at less than 30 percent
of rural airports and only 16 percent of rural airports provide
courtesy cars. None provide bus service.
Economic impact of airports
* According to data from PennDOT’s economic impact
study, rural airports generate an estimated 1,650 jobs with a
total payroll of about $31.5 million. By comparison, urban airports
generate an estimated 286,500 jobs with a total payroll of about
$5.5 billion.
* When economic factors are combined, rural airports
produced $101.5 million in economic activities, or roughly $40
per capita. Urban airports produced more than $12.4 billion in
economic activities or about $1,300 per capita.
Pilots
* According to the FAA, in 1998, there were 588,654
active pilots in the United States. Between 1990 and 1998, the
total number of pilots declined 12 percent.
* In Pennsylvania, there are just over 18,000 active
licensed pilots. Nationally, the Commonwealth ranks ninth in the
total number of pilots. California, Texas, and Florida have the
most number of pilots – more than 45,000 each — while Vermont,
Delaware, and Rhode Island have the least — less than 1,600 each.
Tourism promotion and airports
* According to the informal survey of TPA directors,
about 46 percent said that their organization has marketing materials
at public use airports located within their region.
* About 46 percent of directors said that the public
airport located within their region was a member of the TPA.
* When asked to estimate how many travelers to the
region used the local public airport last year, 73 percent of
directors did not know. Among those who were able to make an estimate,
half said less than 500 visitors used the local airport.
* Asked if they thought the local airport would
play a larger role in tourism promotion over the next five year,
80 percent of the directors said yes. About 40 percent commented
that the airport within their region was about to expand.
Where to go from here
Aero-tourism may be only a small segment of the
entire rural tourism market. However, it has the potential to
be an important piece of a larger opportunity. Through effective
marketing, aero-tourism has the potential to grow, especially
if it is combined with other types of activities such as wildlife
viewing, hunting and fishing, and heritage tourism.
For this market to grow, however, more basic services,
such as transportation to and from the airports, will be needed,
and local TPAs will need to develop marketing strategies geared
toward the aero-tourist.
Want more info?
For the more detailed fact sheet, Landing on
a Rural Opportunity, contact the Center for Rural Pennsylvania
at (717) 787-9555 or email info@ruralpa.org.
Chairman’s Message
Along with serving as chairman of the Center for
Rural Pennsylvania, I serve on a legislative committee that deals
with issues relating to tourism and recreational development in
our Commonwealth. Tourism of all types helps to bolster the state’s
economy, and is second only to agriculture in importance on an
economic scale.
Our feature article on aero-tourism brings to mind
an earlier era when airplanes and their pilots were novelties,
barnstorming across the United States and drawing large audiences
along their flight paths. Their arrival created a reason for people
to gather together and have some fun. Today, small airplanes touching
down on rural runways may not be the center of attention for local
residents, but the planes still play an important role in bringing
people together. And they certainly provide a different perspective
for those who enjoy getting a bird’s eye view of the Keystone
State.
This mode of travel has given flight to another
niche market in the tourism industry that involves getting pilots
and passengers from rural airports to the areas and activities
that surround them. The Center for Rural Pennsylvania’s recent
analysis of public airports in rural areas has identified aero-tourism
as a key ingredient in the growing network of businesses that
support our Commonwealth’s tourism industry.
Of the 134 public airports in Pennsylvania, 41 percent
are in rural areas. Last year, the average rural airport had nearly
16,000 planes landing and taking off. Rural communities may want
to invest in updating and upgrading these existing resources,
putting this infrastructure together with effective marketing
to help aero-tourism take off, especially when it is combined
with other types of rural tourism activities. For more information
on aero-tourism, ask for the Center for Rural Pennsylvania fact
sheet, Landing on a Rural Opportunity.
This issue of Rural Perspectives includes
other opportunities which you may want to explore, including a
program that allows teachers to get in touch with their farming
roots through an educational seminar called "Ag in the Classroom."
Whether a teacher grew up on a farm or has never set foot on a
farm, this week-long field trip brings rural and urban educators
together for a learning experience they can incorporate later
in their lesson plans. Their personal experience will help them
teach future students about Pennsylvania’s number one industry
by blending this information about agriculture into their curriculum
mix of math, science, and other subjects – helping children understand
how agriculture affects everyone’s life, every day.
On page 6, you’ll also find a brief summary of two
reports released by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania that offer
more insight into rural populations, and on pages 5 and 7, information
on important programs and conferences of interest to rural Pennsylvanians.
As the countryside is reawakening with lengthening
days and warmer temperatures, the coming of spring rejuvenates
us and helps us prepare for another busy growing season. Whether
we gaze down upon our rich land from high in the sky, or from
knee level as we plant a seed, rural Pennsylvania is certainly
something to behold. Enjoy.
Representative Sheila Miller
Cows in the Classroom? Well, Sort
of . . .
Agriculture is a part of everyone’s life; it’s the
food we eat, the clothes we wear, the medicines we use, and the
homes in which we live. As more and more people become further
removed from the farm and the understanding of how agriculture
affects our lives, it is important to continue educating the public,
and especially children, on how agriculture affects our economy
and our society.
For about 20 years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture
has been supporting a program called, "Ag in the Classroom,"
to educate kindergarten through 12th grade students about our
nation’s agricultural system. Over the past decade or so, however,
the number of Ag in the Classroom programs has declined in Pennsylvania.
While more than 200 schools were offering agricultural education
programs about 10 years ago, today, only 167 schools administer
some type of agricultural education. The biggest barrier to getting
more schools interested in agricultural education is the misconception
of what agricultural education is all about.
To clear up any misconceptions and increase the
program’s use among teachers, the Agriculture Awareness Foundation
of Pennsylvania (AAFPA), a non-profit foundation created in 1991,
has recently stepped up its efforts by focusing its attention
on teachers.
Hands-on learning
The AAFPA stresses to teachers that the Ag in the
Classroom program differs from other ag-based curricula because
it incorporates practical ideas into mathematics, health and nutrition,
science, and writing. The program consists of classroom and laboratory
instruction, supervised agricultural experiences, and leadership
activities through such associations as the 4-H club and Future
Farmers of America.
More teacher participation
Today, the AAFPA is trying to make the curricula
more accessible to teachers who have little or no experience in
agricultural education by offering Ag in the Classroom Teacher
Workshops. Participants in the workshops, which are cosponsored
by the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, receive transportation, educational
resources, and room and board at Penn State University’s Main
Campus.
As part of the weeklong summer workshop, participating
teachers visit farms, ranches, and food production, processing,
and distribution plants to learn how food moves from its source
to the consumer. Teachers also receive instruction through field
trips and in-class seminars on such topics as nutrition, ecology,
food use, and pest control in the farming industry. Participants
may then integrate the information about agriculture and the earth’s
natural resources into their class curricula. The teachers use
personal experiences from the workshops to explain to their students
how Pennsylvania’s largest industry affects lives everyday.
According to the AAFPA, 690 educators from nearly
all of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties have graduated from the program
since 1992. These educators have taught more than 86,000 students,
and by sharing information and instruction with their colleagues,
they have potentially reached more than 258,000 students since
that first workshop in 1992.
Summer workshop slated
The next Ag in the Classroom Teacher Workshops will
be held July 16 to July 21, 2001. Teachers interested in attending
the workshops and receiving scholarships or other funding support
are encouraged to contact their county farm bureau.
For more information or to receive a free Ag in
the Classroom brochure, interested teachers may also e-mail member@pfb.com;
visit the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau’s website at http://www.pfb.com/programs/aitc.html;
visit the AAFPA website at www.cas.psu.edu/docs/CASPROF/AgClassroom/agclassroom.html;
or call Carol Ann Gregg, Education Coordinator at (724) 458-6108.
Public Service through Volunteerism
A Look at the Americorps Program
Public service has always been a vital force in
America. Today, people of all ages and backgrounds are working
at the grassroots level to address our nation’s most pressing
issues – improving schools, protecting the environment, and combating
homelessness, just to name a few.
AmeriCorps has more recently become a part of a
long tradition of public service that has included the Civilian
Conservation Corps, the GI Bill, and the Peace Corps.
Where it began
AmeriCorps was established in 1993 by the federal
government with the aim of encouraging community volunteerism
by enlisting people in public-service activities. It works this
way: an individual volunteers for one to two years of service
while receiving a living stipend and an education grant to help
finance a college education or to pay student loans. In general,
full-time AmeriCorps volunteers work at least 1,700 hours in one
year and receive an education grant of about $4,700. Part-time
AmeriCorps volunteers work 900 hours and are eligible for about
$2,600 in grants. The money must be used within seven years and
can only be used for education. Volunteers also may receive a
living stipend of up to $9,000.
AmeriCorps has grown from a pilot program to include
more than 37,000 people participating in more than 700 projects
nationwide. These projects focus primarily on education, the environment,
public safety, and human services. Participants have taught, tutored,
or mentored more than 2 million children; run after-school programs
for about 500,000 low-income children; helped more than 200,000
senior citizens live independently; planted 52 million trees;
and created 40,000 neighborhood "safe zones."
AmeriCorps in rural Pennsylvania
PennSERVE, a branch of the Governor’s Office of
Citizen Service, administers AmeriCorps in Pennsylvania. Penn-SERVE
was created to promote community service through grants, training,
and assistance and is the central communications hub for all of
the federally supported programs.
Three of the nine AmeriCorps State Programs are
located in rural counties. Of the 27 AmeriCorps VISTA Programs,
13 are operating in rural counties; of the 33 Learn and Serve
Programs, 17 are operating in rural counties; and of the 44 senior
programs, 28 are operating in rural counties.
One of four major programs currently running in
rural Pennsylvania is the Pennsylvania Mountain Service Corps
(PMSC), sponsored by the Appalachia Intermediate Unit 8. The PMSC
covers Armstrong, Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fayette, Fulton, Huntingdon,
Indiana, Somerset, and Westmoreland counties and has 85 full-time
members, and 10 part-time members. The PMSC, like other Americorps
programs, focuses on four initiatives, including education, the
environment, public safety and human needs. Through its efforts,
the PMSC has tutored hundreds of students in math and reading,
provided thousands of seniors and their families with necessary
services and cleaned and tested hundreds of miles of water.
Other rural programs include the Family Service
Corps of Butler County, which focuses on enhancing family and
children services; Keystone Smiles, a program partnered with Clarion
University and local school districts to address community educational
programs; and C.O.R.E. Susquehanna, a multi-partnership program
covering a seven-county area, where volunteers work in schools,
libraries, social service agencies and wilderness areas.
AmeriCorps allows people of all ages and backgrounds
to strengthen rural and urban communities, and gain life skills.
For more information about Americorps, visit its
website at www.americorps.org, or call 800-94A-CORP. More information
on the C.O.R.E. Susquehanna program is at www.coresusquehanna.org.
Did You Know . . .
* In 1999, three out of every eight rural Pennsylvanians
had a library card.
* In 1999, the average rural library cardholder
checked out nine books.
* According to U.S. Census Bureau data, in 1997,
rural residents spent more than $2 billion on health care and
social assistance, or roughly $820 per person.
Municipal Leadership Conference
Set for May and June
Local government officials looking to develop their
leadership skills should make plans now to attend the 2001 Local
Government Leadership Summit, set for May and June. The conference,
sponsored by the One Source Municipal Training Program of the
Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors (PSATS)
and the Governor’s Center for Local Government Services, will
be held in six locations across the state and will feature prominent
national speakers. The registration fee is $75 on or before May
1 and $90 after May 1. Dates, locations and hotel registration
information for each conference are listed below.
* May 16 & 17, Dauphin County,
Sheraton East Harrisburg, (717) 561-2800, www.usahotelguide.com/states/pennsylvania/harrisburg/sheraton_inn.html
* May 17 & 18, Chester County, Best Western
Exton, (610) 363-1100, www.bestwestern.com
* June 6 & 7, Centre County, Toftrees
Resort and Conference Center, (800) 252-3551, www.toftrees.com
* June 7 & 8, Lehigh County, Sheraton
Inn Jetport, (610) 266-1000, www.sheratonjetport.com
* June 20 & 21, Westmoreland County,
Mountain View Inn, (724) 834-5300, www.mountainviewinn.com
* June 21 & 22, Crawford County, Holiday
Inn Express, (814) 724-6012
To register for the conference, contact the PSATS
One Source Program at (717) 763-0930 or fax (717) 763-9732.
Reports Offer Important Insights
into Rural Populations
Is state government spending enough on job development
efforts, childcare and health service issues? Do rural Pennsylvanians
trust government and how would they rate its overall job performance?
These are just some of the issues addressed in a study recently
sponsored by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania and released as
part of the report, An Attitudinal Survey of Pennsylvania’s
Rural Residents.
A second report recently released by the Center,
Pennsylvania’s Rural Women: A Demographic and Socioeconomic
Profile, also answers basic questions about the characteristics
of our state’s rural women that have until now gone unanswered.
Both reports are based on one-year studies and offer
important insights about a majority segment of our state’s rural
population and the population as a whole.
Putting thoughts on paper
An Attitudinal Survey of Pennsylvania’s Rural
Residents was conducted by Dr. Michael Young and a team of
researchers from the Center for Survey Research and the Institute
of State and Regional Affairs at the Pennsylvania State University’s
Capital Campus. The survey, conducted and compiled throughout
1999 and 2000, gathered baseline data on rural opinions and attitudes
across a spectrum of policy relevant issues that either had been
or were quickly becoming a part of Pennsylvania’s public policy
agenda. Previously, no statewide baseline data had existed on
Pennsylvania’s rural population with respect to its opinions and
attitudes on such issues as government spending, population stability
and outmigration, confidence and trust in government institutions,
measuring state government performance on policy issues, support
for regional cooperation, and controlling sprawl.
To conduct the survey, researchers used a random
sample telephone survey of 844 rural Pennsylvanians, aged 18 or
older, who live in the state’s 42 rural counties.
A sampling of results
* Sixty-five percent of survey respondents said
that government is spending "too little" in the policy
area of job creation; 60 percent said that government was spending
too little on child care issues; and 57 percent said too little
was being spent on health services.
* Respondents judged government spending as "just
right" in the areas of parks and recreation, historic preservation
and public transportation.
* In general, rural Pennsylvanians show a moderate
to high level of trust and confidence in major governmental institutions.
* The four most important policy areas to rural
Pennsylvanians are education, public safety, jobs/economic development,
and health services.
* Overall, state government received a medium to
medium-low job rating on 16 policy areas.
* On the issue of sprawl, rural Pennsylvanians strongly
support local government action to control sprawl.
Women in the majority
Women make up more than half of Pennsylvania’s rural
population and have distinct needs and characteristics from urban
females and rural and urban males, according to the study Pennsylvania’s
Rural Women: A Demographic and Socioeconomic Profile.
The study, conducted by Dr. Gretchen Cornwell of
Penn State University, looked at the characteristics of the Commonwealth’s
female population living in rural areas and compared those characteristics
with rural men, urban women, and urban men. The project was based
primarily on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population
Surveys of 1996, 1997, and 1998.
A sample of survey results
* Rural women are more likely to be currently married
than any other group.
* About 20 percent of rural women live in a female-headed
household.
* More than 25 percent of rural women live alone
and almost 33 percent of urban women live alone. Men are less
likely to live alone.
* About 55 percent of rural women, aged 15 years
and older, are in the labor force compared to 69 percent of rural
men and 58 percent of urban women.
* Unemployment rates for rural women and men are
slightly higher than for their urban counterparts and rural men
are more likely to be unemployed than are rural women.
* Seventy-five percent of rural women report wages
and salary as a source of family income, and over 30 percent report
social security income.
* About 13 percent of rural women live in poverty.
Want more info?
For a copy of either report, call the Center
for Rural Pennsylvania at (717) 787-9555 or email info@ruralpa.org.
Just the Facts: Taxing Times Ahead
It’s that time of year again - time to dig out your
receipts, calculator, software, pens, pencils…and especially your
patience. Tax season is here!
In 1998, the most current year of data available
from the state Department of Revenue, 1.13 million rural Pennsylvanians
filed personal income tax returns and contributed $968 million
to the state coffers. Urban taxpayers filed 4.13 million returns,
helping to generate $4.7 billion for the state.
Per capita, rural tax filers contributed about $380
in income taxes in 1998, representing an increase of 49 percent
from the $255 contributed in 1988. The $968 million in 1998 taxes
represents a 56 percent increase from the $621 million generated
10 years earlier. The increases are due in part to the rate increase
from 2.1 percent of taxable income in 1988 to 2.8 percent in 1998.
Urban residents paid significantly more per capita in personal
income taxes at $499 each.
Revenue generated per return filed in 1998 was also
much higher for urban Pennsylvanians at $1,144 compared to the
rural returns of $856.
The state earned 35 percent of its total general
fund revenues from personal income taxes in the 1998-1999 fiscal
year. Other earnings include 34 percent from sales and use taxes,
21 percent from corporate taxes, and the remaining 10 percent
from other sources.
If you live in rural Pennsylvania, let’s hope you
took an accounting class to help with your tax preparation since
tax preparation businesses are few and far between. There were
only 120 such business establishments in the state’s 42 rural
counties in 1998. Five counties had none, while six others had
only one. No rural county had more than 10.
In addition to having fewer tax preparation businesses,
rural residents have much farther to travel to reach tax assistance
businesses. Rural tax preparers average four for every 1,000 square
miles compared to 20 in urban areas.
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