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1st Quarter Report. 2022. Appalachia Sustainable Tourism Collaboration

Updated: Apr 7, 2022


ASTC becomes stronger when stakeholders better understand the atmospheric and economic development potential of tourism, particularly nature based tourism in our 5 state service area.


Our primary objective for 2022 is to network and develop our brand while making our 3 websites more robust,

ASTC Home. Appalachiastc.com

Touring Events & Activities. Astctour.com

Stakeholders astcstakeholder.com


2022 Yearly Goals

Every year we have goals to focus on in order to serve our mission and vision within our general 121 county service area.

Please consider viewing our 2022 goals.



Press Release

None.


Overview

There was a major transition with this quarter. The social enterprise no longer has status as an LLC. The short of it is that we saved $600 by downsizing. There’s no way we could have collected that from donations. Furthermore, the 2-5 year strategic plan has the president going out and working temporary jobs to support the organization. The President spent the winter in the Deep South and even in southern Florida. The Deep South ends around Orlando.


There was one familizaration trip during this Quarter. That was Eastern, KY; and Western, West Virginia.

Please read this blog on the subject: The Wayne County Area of West Virginia. A Brief Primer on the Nature Based Tourism Potential


We expanded into the Roanoke Valley Region and to the north. At first we thought about using the Tourism Marketing base of “Virginia’s Blue Ridge.” and just adding Craig County to the mix, but eventually decided to adopt the “Virginia Mountains.” , because it matches with the Virginia Tourism Corporation. We will spend time in the 2nd quarter promoting this region and updating the websites.


Current Events

Solar power projects see the light on former Appalachian coal land. (Dickenson County, VA)


Former school building transformed into boutique hotel designed for accessibility

West Virginia. Creates 40 jobs.


WE’VE CHOSEN TO HONOR THE NEW RIVER GORGE NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE AS OUR 2021 WEST VIRGINIAN OF THE YEAR. By WV Living Magazine.


Sportsman's Complex receives grant to expand

(Dickenson County)

$150,000 was awarded to the Sportsman's Complex in Clintwood. It features a full shooting range, which includes sporting clays, skeet, pistol and rifle ranges.



Canadian Electric Vehicle Maker To Build School Buses In West Virginia


New President of Marshall write about how this is the moment for West Virginia


GreenPower Motor Co. announced Wednesday that it will build electric school buses at a plant in South Charleston.

The 80,000-square-foot plant will employ 200 workers later this year and as many as 900 within two years. The company will lease the property from the state.

North Carolina Sets Record For New Business Creation

North Carolina set another record for new business creation in 2021. Roughly 178,300 new businesses were legally created across the state last year, up 40% from the year before — which was itself a record, according to the Secretary of State’s office. The figure is double the pace of new business...



New center for entrepreneurship comes to Transylvania University


WV House creates committee on to revitalize coal communities

Pikeville rolling out long-planned

streetscape project


Hard Rock director describes vision for Bristol community

A coalition of entities from across West Virginia, including Marshall University, today launched the Appalachian Climate Technologies Coalition, a group geared toward building a new economy for the southern part of the state



The Opportunity Appalachia program provides targeted support for downtown and rural development to build entrepreneurial communities where local business can thrive, creating quality jobs for residents, helping to address the Covid downturn and revitalize local economies.


Bill won’t privatize Cacapon, other state parks (West Virginia)


ASTC Community Service

None.



New Sponsors

A few were added due to their commitment to improving tourism development. No one paid any money or asked.



ASTC’s Goals for 2022


Logo Submissions:

No submissions. Click here for more details


Help Facilitate a Regional Trail Crew/s:


Was able to network more on Twitter and LinkedIn.


Focus Travel Agencies towards our region

We found three or four Travel Specialists. One is an independent Travel Agent in our service area who works out of Greenbrier County, WV. She was added to the Travel Specialists page. Travel with Hope.

Another Travel Specialists is also out of WV. They work out of Charleston and are a Travel Agency. National Travel Service, Inc.


Entrepreneur Incubator:


We did not have anyone reach out to us for a free consultation. We did add some Twitter accounts to the List, and added a few links to the Information and Calendar page.


Tourism and Social Media


Flickr

Might have followed a couple of sites.



Linkedin

The president has 825 Followers. And 500+ connections. The organization page has 386 followers.


YouTube

We picked up zero subscriptions. We are currently at 10. Only a few channels and videos were added to our featured channels and our playlists.


Twitter

We actually have 2 Twitter accounts. One has a list of accounts for the 65+ topics on our Tourism Site.

The main twitter account is how we communicate to the world.


Twitter followers seemed to stay around 477 for weeks and weeks. The last week of February we hit the 500 mark.

Followers: We ended the quarter with around 516 followers.


ASTC Blogs

General Blogs


Ten Critical Things to Consider with Southern West Virginia and Tourism



Ten Optimistic Things to Consider with Southern West Virginia and Tourism


10 Things for Labor to Consider with Tourism jobs and careers in Coal County



Entrepreneur Incubator Blogs

State Capitals in Coal Country should consider spearheading the creation of tourism packages


10 Recommendations for Tourism Entrepreneurs in Coal Country



The Wayne County Area of West Virginia. A Brief Primer on the Nature Based Tourism Potential


This blog was very informative and confidence inspiring for the area.


ASTC Forums

We did not have any activity in our forums. We picked up a couple of online members


ASTC Groups

No Groups were requested to be started.


Tourism Site

Many Links were added.

A few calendar events were added due to the new focus on temporary employment.

116 visits over a 90 day period.

A major emphasis is on finding ways to bring down trip planning constraints. So Outfitters Planning, and places to rest are very important to find.


As stated above we must add more tourism events to promote the Virginia Mountains tourism region.


Stakeholder Site

Many links were added..

We added a few calendar events

113 visits over a 90 day period.

We moved Internship from Collaboration and moved it under Appalachia. We also created an Apprenticeship page.


Environment

Not having a brick and mortar office, the carbon footprint of ASTC is extremely low.

We did not volunteer for any improvements to the environment.


Economy

ASTC should be considered a Chamber of Commerce for 121 counties. We find organizations and put their links on over 65 pages on our Tourism site. We also help entrepreneurs by being transparent with what we did to create our LLC, and with offering free consultations.

Society

We continue to spread information on policy issues and ways for stakeholders to get involved with the policy formation. It would be great to list events on the calendars, but there is not enough time in the day.



Final Thoughts

We are happy with the 1st Quarter of 2022.


A lot of networking happened with LinkedIn.


By adding the Virginia Mountains region we will better network with Southern, West Virginia, anad help Giles County by learning more about Craig County. Alslo, this helps us with Floyd County because it is beside Franklin County.


If you need clarification or more information on a subject, please contact ASTC and we will try to help you.



Travis Stanley

President

Appalachia Sustainable Tourism Collaboration

Where Tourists Become Stakeholders.


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