Heritage Tourism Strategist
Meet Heidi Schlag
Consultants often miss the soul of heritage work.
They sell "pretty places" but overlook the local stories, authentic experiences, and deep community pride that truly define your destination.
I built my career inside the very organizations I now help,
giving me unmatched insight into how to turn heritage into powerful visitor experiences.
About Heidi Glatfelter Schlag
Over the past 25 years, I’ve worked at the intersection of museums, cultural organizations, and heritage tourism. I’ve led campaigns, managed major grants, developed regional partnerships, and created visitor experience strategies in collaboration with DMOs, Main Streets, Byways, and Heritage Areas.
That work has given me a deep understanding of how places function—not just as destinations, but as networks of organizations, stories, and community relationships.
My experience as a staff member, board member, and volunteer gives me a 360-degree view of the realities heritage organizations face. From historic interpretation to regional tourism strategy, I bring both practical insight and a systems-level perspective to the work.
Who My Clients Are
I work with cultural organizations, DMOs, museums, heritage areas, historic sites, and tourism partnerships that believe their stories matter. Many of my clients are small to mid-sized organizations with big visions — teams that are rooted in their communities and passionate about their missions, but often stretched for time, capacity, or internal alignment.
Whether they are looking to build new audiences, strengthen partnerships, or better connect with travelers, my clients share a common goal: to create meaningful, authentic visitor experiences that drive impact.
The Problems I Help Solve
Most destinations aren’t lacking in stories or assets. In fact, they often have an abundance of both. What’s missing is a clear sense of connection.
Stories live in different places, partners operate independently, and visitors experience a destination one stop at a time, without a clear understanding of how it all fits together. Even when the individual pieces are strong, the overall experience can feel fragmented.
My work focuses on helping organizations move beyond that fragmentation. I work with partners to align their stories, priorities, and efforts, identify the themes that connect places, and shape those connections into cohesive visitor experiences that are easier to understand and navigate.
This often means bridging gaps — between interpretation and tourism, between individual organizations and broader regional strategies, and between strong local stories and the visitors who are trying to discover them.
When that alignment is in place, everything else becomes more effective. Marketing is clearer, messaging is more focused, and the destination itself becomes easier for visitors to experience as a whole.
What It's Like to Work With Me
My clients often describe me as an extension of their team—someone who understands their work and can step in quickly with both perspective and practical support.
I bring a collaborative, strategic, and grounded approach to every project. I listen first, work to understand your goals and constraints, and then help you move forward with solutions that are realistic, aligned, and built to last.
Sometimes that means leading a project. Sometimes it means facilitating conversations. Sometimes it means helping you see connections you hadn’t considered before.
Always, the goal is the same: to help you turn your mission, your stories, and your partnerships into something visitors can clearly experience and connect with.
Memberships
