Grassroots of Tarboro

In the event anyone is interested (copied from Friday's Daily Southerner)

Tourism plan to be revealed Monday

Sherry Brunson
Staff Writer

A N.C. State University "Tourism Planning: Keeping it Real" class will unveil a tourism plan for Edgecombe County at 10 a.m. Monday in McIntyre Auditorium at Edgecombe Community College.

The presentation of the Tourism Plan will raise awareness of the many tourism assets we have in Edgecombe County," said Community Development Director Eric Evans. "I also hope it will help to generate the enthusiasm and support we will need to implement the plan in order to develop tourism in the County."

Approximately 10 graduate and undergraduate students have been working on the plan since early February. They have traveled throughout the county, asking questions, collecting data and taking photos.

Dr. Carol Kline, of the N.C. Tourism Extension, at the University, has taught the students and coordinated the plan

in partnership with the Edgecombe County government, said North Carolina is the 6th most visited state in the U.S.

"Tourism brings $15 billion into our state annually," she said.

Tourists brought approximately $880,000 to the Edgecombe County economy in 2007.

Kline said the plan can be used as leverage to aggressively compete for state and federal grant opportunities, such as the North Carolina Park and Recreation Trust Fund, Land and Water Conservation Funds and the Golden LEAF Foundation.

The class also had an online survey, that requested feedback from the community as to what they wanted tourists to see, and what considered sacred to local residents.

N.C. Cooperative Extension Director James Pearce encourages everyone in the county to attend the presentation.

"As people see the statistics and realize the value of tourism, we can see how we might help each other, and get organized in a targeted way," he said. "It will help us all to be on the same page. We can see what else we have in the county, and what others are doing, so we can market people and the left hand will know what the right hand is doing."

The study has been done for approximately $2,000, a minimal cost to the county, since it was a student project.

Edgecombe County Cooperative Extension Agent Art Bradley was also enthusiastic about the plan.

"I hope that you can come out and hear about the plan and the possibilities for Edgecombe County in tourism development," he said

I attended the meeting today and was happy to see that a good number of people were also interested in what this study had to share with us.
I was also happy to see that we at The Grassroots seem be on the right track, many of the suggestions made to increase tourism in Edgecombe County were things that we are already working on.
One of the County Commissioners made the statement that the citizens need to get involved and I responded that "We are!".