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Assets in the community that draw tourists and the need to maintain the natural beauty of the area were discussed at a town hall forum on sustainable tourism Thursday at the Blount County Public Library.

A Great Smoky Mountains Sustainable Tourism Summit is planned April 28-29 at the University of Tennessee. The the town hall meeting was held to discuss the what topics people in gateway communities would like to have discussed at the summit. Sustainable tourism involves preserving the history and cultural character of a community so tourists will want to visit the area again.

The summit will be held in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of Great Smoky Mountains National Park next year.

The summit will be hosted by UT, Middle Tennessee State University, Tennessee Department of Tourist Development and National Geographic.

“This area is recognized throughout the world for its scenic beauty and musical heritage. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a world heritage site,” said Susan Whitaker, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development.

Dr. Van West, director of the MTSU Center of Historic Preservation, led the discussion on what draws tourists to this area and what problems need to be faced to sustain tourism.

The recent designation of Blount County as a Preserve America community shows this area is already involved in sustainable tourism, West said.

“You have to have commitments from all sorts of groups to create the environment to move sustainable tourism forward. You’ve got to have shared goals, shared resources and shared responsibilities,” he said.

He called the concept “investing in ourselves.”

Heritage tourists on average stay longer and spend more money in an area.

“The key thing that started to turn this area around was the Maryville Bicentennial Greenway, and that was 20 years ago,” West said.

About 50 people attended the town hall meeting and gave views on what they think are the best heritage and natural assets of the area.

Those included Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center, musical heritage, stories of the people who live and settled here, the authentic charm and special way of life in the area and the Museum of Appalachia in Anderson County.

Also included were Cherohala Skyway, working farms, opportunities for outdoor recreation, Foothills Parkway, beautiful lakes that came from ALCOA Inc.’s need for electricity and led to construction of Calderwood Dam and the large number of descendants of settlers still living in the area.

To tell the story of the area in a more interesting way, Executive Vice President for Tourism of Smoky Mountain Convention and Visitors Bureau Herb Handly suggested the scenic highway byway. A group is working on preservation of Highway 321 that runs from Loudon to Washington counties and “through that trail you could tell the whole story of the East Tennessee area,” he said. “That is a tremendous opportunity to get people off the interstates and into the communities.”

There is also the Shadows of the Past brochure that outlines history along the hiking/biking path in Townsend, he added.

Bob Patterson, director of Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center, is in the process of developing a film that tells the history and culture of the region. Daryl Akins said the area should partner with McGhee Tyson Airport to showcase the history and culture of the region, the first place many people come.

Doug Horn suggested turning rest stops in the region into mini-heritage centers.
Gail Harris said she doesn’t see all the partnerships other people were talking about.
“There are no tools for preserving our farmland or keeping a major highway from coming in and destroying farmland. There is no way to maintain or preserve our heritage without some legal tools,” she said.

“We need to implement better regulations,” West surmised.

Another man who attended the meeting said, “Blount County is by, for and of developers. Something has to occur to control developers.”

Another topic was roadside trash and the need to educate the local people about how this makes the county look negative.

Beth Phillips, economic development specialist with UT Institute of Public Service, said the national park has a $1 billion economic impact.

The competition

She wanted to know what places people have visited that have good practices in place. Mentioned were Asheville, N.C.; North Georgia; Bar Harbor, Maine; Oregon; and Lancaster, Pa.

Smokies information officer Bob Miller said visitation has been flat in the park since 2001.

“Tourists have so many choices out there.” He mentioned more attractions at Dollywood and the opening of Harrah’s Casino in Cherokee, N.C.

Handly said of the trend toward “green tourism,” that the visitors bureau will be marketing the area as a green destination for hiking, biking and other outdoor activities.

Another person said there should be education about ecological, green practices.
A problem Janice Filmore brought up was the lack of a trolly in Townsend. She and others are trying to get a grant to fund a trolly.

She also said the public needs to get grants or donations to buy the fields beside the Townsend Visitors Center, “which is the heart of Townsend.”
Phillips said that Ed McMahan, a sustainable tourist expert, may be one of the speakers at the April summit.