Cultural Tourism: Marketing of Culturally Authentic Places and Products Along America's Backroads

Most state and regional tourism promotion and marketing efforts focus on a few major attractions and well-traveled areas. As a result, most travelers follow the major highways and often miss unique and interesting communities and sites located in more remote areas. Digital documentation of these areas of history, culture, environment and other features in conjunction with rapidly advancing handheld and wireless technology allow rural areas to enhance visitors experience and enable rural communities to more effectively promote and market their community. The purpose of this project is to build and test tools and processes to document, list and organize historic, cultural, environmental and other unique sites in rural areas into a digital format that can be accessed by travelers via the Internet, displayed via handheld technology, and potentially in real-time via cell phone technology to enhance their experiences. The Phase I project will develop and test a prototype Internet based trip planning program and handheld electronic rural tour guide.