Road Tourism
Regional tourism lifeline (and strategic opportunity)
Regional tourism growth and development have long
relied on drive or
road tourism, including
self-drive and coach driven travel options.
In reality, visitor access
via highways and link roads has come to represent the basic tourism lifeline for
most rural and coastal destinations ... particularly those without
airports, or distant from major population centers. Higher fuel prices affect, but do not eliminate, this basic truth.
And while
some travel routes have been officially designated as scenic byways, scenic drives or touring routes, it is still surprising to find
that a more strategic and traveler-focused approach to acknowledging
and fostering the
wider context & role of road tourism has not
been adopted in many regions and states.
Even where government policies exist to boost rural economic growth
by encouraging the regional dispersion of
visitors away from larger cities, the focus has often been placed on only marketing each
regional destinations' attractions. (With the key travel routes, driver/passenger needs, transport links & modes and necessary
facilities
and support services only lightly addressed and unsatisfactorily integrated.)
One symptom of this outlook
- that clearly ignores visitor behavior and travel interests - is the way many official regional or state maps simply
'stop dead' at their (administratively defined) road borders. But in practice (from a traveler's perspective at least), borders
are just imaginary, historically created 'dotted lines' on the landscape. Frequently the companion tourism websites also
reflect such short sighted ('border-limited') approaches to road tourism content provision & marketing. Yet cross-border
content options are feasible.
Integration and simplification
Integrated and effectively targeted, 'one-stop' information
supply for visitors should be a vital contemporary marketing goal ... one that structures and simplifies their planning process
as much as possible.
This is certainly not the case when the marketing simply ceases at borders and additional phases of visitor
information gathering are made necessary. The road based travel behaviors & patterns of many 'longer distance'
visitors
are basically being dismissed (and many worthy travel options, including extra experiences and destinations,
potentially
closed off). Extra time for experience/destination options must be
planned for in advance by most visitors.
Sadly, this problem can be compounded if industry fails to meet tourists' desires for the best tips and best
advice
(i.e. trustworthy/'conflict free') on the most rewarding & memorable local and regional travel experiences along
a route - whether food, accommodation, attractions, scenic drives, etc. (See '16 Tips for Greater Visitor Center Impact'.)
