Highlands Creative Economy is a partnership between Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area and Eastern West Virginia Community & Technical College. The HCE program hosts a monthly networking meeting for tourism-related organizations, training events, workshops, and the annual Tourism Summit. This open forum gives county tourism leaders and local businesses a chance to discuss successes, issues, and solutions, and to engage with guest speakers.
Eric Thompson discussed accessibility resources at the Tourism Summit
In 2024 we hosted a stakeholder meeting in Buckhannon, three “Lunch and Learn” hospitality trainings, the annual Tourism Summit in Romney, online marketing trainings, and an interpretation workshop. Highlands Creative Economy Council meetings, trainings, and gatherings over the past year have included representatives from all 18 AFNHA counties. Participants continue to report that they learned new information or skills, learned about potential funding opportunities, and reported improved connection with other sites or initiatives in the region.
At our Tourism Summit we announced plans for our new Partnership and Discovery Sites programs which will support tourism assets and other partner organizations in our region.
Minigrants
AFNHA awarded minigrants to five regional tourism events during the spring and fall of 2024. Each event brought together multiple local or regional organizations to share information about common goals or promote local assets and resources. Below are quotes from three of these event organizers:
West Virginians for Public Lands gathering:
“West Virginians for Public Lands (WVPL) held an in-person meeting May 15, 2024. Your support helped make this event a success:
The gathering included panels on recreational trails
21 attendees, and publicity to 95 public lands activists, groups, and stakeholders
Increased knowledge to attendees about trail-related issues, forest-related issues, and the latest research on vehicle/wildlife crashes and wildlife corridors.
Attendees had the opportunity to network and build relationships during the lunch provided through the mini grant, and from other break times. All local, Appalachian Forest-based area businesses were used for lunch and coffee.
Representatives of agencies attended (US Forest Service, WV Department of Natural Resources) and municipal groups (Mon Forest Towns). New groups were engaged into the work of WVPL (WV Scenic Trails/Allegheny Trails as one example)
Social media from WVPL, WV Rivers Coalition, and WV Highlands Conservancy highlighted the meeting and the presentations.
We consider this a great opportunity to network and build alliances in the Appalachian Forest region on recreation as conservation, and the importance of proper construction and maintenance of recreation economy assets for conservation of the opportunities now and for future generations.”
-Mike Jones (Public Lands Campaign Coordinator, West Virginia Rivers Coalition)
Petersburg Art Walk:
“We had a fantastic art walk with many in attendance. We hosted events throughout Petersburg including a chainsaw carving demonstration, a painting demonstration, 3 art gallery shows (some with working studios), a new mural by a local artists and a screening of a documentary showcasing the meaning behind the mural, live music, children's arts and craft stations, a theater performance, food trucks, henna painting, a woodworking demonstration, and a historic photography exhibit.”
-Carla Kaposy (Director, Pendleton County Convention & Visitors Bureau)
One of several interactive activities available at various businesses during the Art Walk
Allegheny Highlands Trail 50th Anniversary Celebration
“It was fabulous to have the AFNHA $500 Tourism Grant for the ALT 50th, along with two people tabling and sharing about your organization in the “partner canopy section". We had 178 people from 15 states attend our ALT 50th celebration with the furthest participant coming from Seattle, Washington.
Due to the AFNHA Tourism Grant, WVSTA was able to pay for Julie Gayheart from Jester Wallis Productions to attend the ALT 50th Celebration and help us introduce the premier of the ALT short film. Julie shared about the 17-month collaboration with WVSTA, what it took to manifest the film, she shared her experience working with the ALT volunteers and exploring the beauty along the trail through WV. She also welcomed a short Q and A period prior to presenting another film creation from Jester Wallis Productions. We were also able host a screening of their documentary "Safe and Found”, an intensely moving safety film for ALL recreational users (has over 15K views on Youtube).
Julie is also the producer of the Allegheny Trail podcast, which is hosted on Youtube, Apple Podcasts (all podcast platforms). Since Julie’s involvement with launching the “Allegheny Trail Podcast", we are getting inquires from hikers across the country that say they heard about the trail from our ALT podcast. This is clearly a direct correlation of tourism growth for the state on our trail. It was great having Julie back in WV to engage with our volunteers, new members and do some face to face planning for our fall podcasts….go TEAM ALT!”
-Nicolle Flood-Sawczyszyn (Outreach Coordinator for West Virginia Scenic Trails Association)
