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The Future of Sustainable Tourism in Rhode Island
Thursday, January 28, 2010
• Transportation Hub – clean transport (bus, zip car, bikes, train, air)
• Bike share program. Cars, canoes, kayaks, zip cars, smart bike
• New trend; after 9/11, peoples values changed
• Local Knowledge/novelty/learning. Something new makes a great travel experience – relates
to customer service, everyone (residents) is in the tourism industry
• Easier to find your way around once you arrive – e.g. bike path, maps, bike shares, public
transportation
• Understanding the global customer
• Conservation, green practices
Hospitality Education/Training:
• Trade ideas on front line innovation
• Figure out how to use social media as an entrée to real, authentic, whole experience, and
leverage the good will traveler
• Good part of customer experience is retelling experiences – a good customer experience
drives tourism, social media biases experience
• Tourism experience is tacit – cannot communicate it, need to experience it
• Frontline worker can improve value of experience and create an opportunity to increase wage.
• Need to listen to customer, ears on frontline
Governance:
• RI residents need to see themselves as a tourist destination
• Eliminate turf wars between regional tourism industries
• Good signage ordinances
• State strategic plan for signage
• Historic preservation tax credits
• State model ordinance for mixed use
• What would be ideal public policies to support tourism? Tax, measure secondary benefits;
Keep our farms in business
• Restore historic tax credits
• Allow farm stands at farms by local zoning
• Need urban and suburban neighborhoods to qualify for state agricultural preservation /open
space bond funding (urban open space)
• Tourism Transportation Summit: Planning and awareness of linkages and enhancements for
tourists, such as RIPTA 20 seat bus service on weekends between Kingston station and
Summit Report
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