Heritage Tourism's Next Chapter: Cheryl Hargrove on the Five Principles and Where the Field Goes From Here
Heritage Tourism Conversations, Episode 6 · Recorded live on Zoom, November 9, 2026
Cheryl Hargrove, the National Trust for Historic Preservation's first director of heritage tourism and author of Cultural Heritage Tourism: Five Steps for Success and Sustainability, joined Heidi Schlag to revisit the five principles of cultural heritage tourism developed at the National Trust in the early 1990s. Drawing on examples from Napier, New Zealand, to Colquitt, Georgia, she showed why the principles still hold up. In the conversation that followed, Cheryl and Heidi took questions from practitioners on volunteer-run sites, marketing to younger audiences, placekeeping in rural communities, making the case to elected officials, and creative funding, and closed on what the field needs next: more collaboration across sectors and a stronger voice at the tourism industry's table.
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About the Guest
Cheryl Hargrove has spent more than three decades in cultural heritage tourism. She was the first director of heritage tourism at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, where the program's steps and principles were developed in the early 1990s, and she has since worked in the hotel industry and helped countless destinations develop cultural and heritage tourism plans. She is the author of Cultural Heritage Tourism: Five Steps for Success and Sustainability and has just finished a new book on the personality of place. A former journalist, she lives on St. Simons Island, Georgia.
What We Talked About
The five steps and five principles still hold up. The National Trust's original process stopped at four steps, ending with marketing. Cheryl added a fifth, manage for growth and sustainability and measure impact, because sites are so often asked to prove why cultural heritage tourism matters. The five principles are to focus on authenticity and quality, preserve and protect resources, make sites and programs come alive, find the fit between community and tourism, and collaborate. Her examples ranged from the Earl Scruggs Center, a former courthouse turned into a world-class music museum, to Fred's Lounge on Louisiana's Zydeco Cajun Prairie Scenic Byway, where Saturday morning music in French is broadcast live and keeps that culture going.
Start with an inventory of what you have. For a community with no formal plan, the first step is finding out what you have and whether it is visitor ready. That inventory reveals themes, gaps, and the intangibles, like legacy bearers, traditions, and longtime local businesses, that give a place its character. From there you can set priorities, decide what interpretation is needed, and, most important, define what success looks like and how you'll measure it.
If you're not open, you're not carrying the responsibility of heritage tourism. Heidi raised a common problem: volunteer-run sites that aren't open reliably enough for their DMO to promote them. Cheryl's answer was collaboration. Sites can share boards, alternate open weekends, recruit college students as docents, or ask board members to staff one Saturday a month. Clear volunteer recruitment helps too. The best programs she has seen spell out the time commitment and the tasks, from the gift shop to writing thank-you notes, and recognize volunteers every year.
Visitors want to be involved, not passive. People will pay to take part in preservation work, and Cheryl pointed to the "impacttainment" trend in the Future 100 report as evidence that travelers want to make a difference while they're somewhere. Heidi added a story from her hearth cooking volunteering: two 10- and 11-year-old girls recognized a historic loom because they had learned to weave on YouTube. Younger generations are hungry for hands-on, analog experiences, and historic sites have the people with those skills. Cheryl connected it to Condé Nast Traveler's "grandma getaways" trend and to a visitor center where local quilters invited visitors to add a stitch. To reach younger audiences, she suggested school projects, youth advisory boards, and kids acting as secret shoppers.
Placekeeping matters as much as placemaking. Placekeeping, a term from Roberto Bedoya in Oakland, is about making sure a place keeps its character and everyone feels they belong as visitors and new residents arrive. Cheryl noted that some places don't want to be promoted at all, as in the Vancouver neighborhood the city's visitors bureau removed from its map at residents' request. In rural communities the work is understanding where the tension is, and as one attendee put it, building trust first. If people don't trust you, nothing gets off the ground.
Make the case with stories, not only numbers. Heidi pointed to the recent demolition of the Kirby Mansion in Houston and a proposed cricket stadium on a historic property in Frederick, Maryland. Cheryl's advice was to be proactive rather than reactive: invite elected officials to tour your site and share your aspirations long before a crisis. Testimonies, passion, and story carry weight alongside economic data. Having worked for a hotel herself, she said hotels need the attractions that give people a reason to stay overnight, so it's not either/or, it's and.
The field needs a stronger collective voice. Cultural heritage tourism has splintered into niches like food, music, film, and sustainable tourism, yet visitors still arrive at a destination and ask what else there is to do. Cheryl sees heritage and cultural organizations as underrepresented at state tourism conferences and industry events like IPW. Heidi shared that she started this series for exactly that reason, because museums, DMOs, and outdoor recreation groups were all having the same conversations in separate silos. Her tip: propose a conference session about a collaboration you did with another sector. Cheryl also asked attendees whether they'd want a gathering of cultural heritage tourism practitioners, and the chat answered with an enthusiastic yes.
Develop good projects, then find the funder. Cheryl recommended starting with your community foundation, looking at visitor giving programs and local groups like 100 Women Who Care, and thinking creatively. One project she worked on secured EDA funding for a health purpose by showing that walking the trails at historic sites could add up to 10,000 steps, and by partnering with a hospital to offer quiet spaces for cancer patients. Heidi noted that a grant supporting several organizations working together on a community need makes an especially compelling case.
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Heritage Tourism Conversations happen monthly on Zoom, and each one brings together people working in museums, DMOs, scenic byways, heritage areas, Main Streets, and outdoor recreation to learn from each other. Join my email list to get the invitation for upcoming conversations, and see what's coming up next on the Heritage Tourism Conversations page.
Full Transcript
This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.
Heidi Schlag: Thank you, everybody, for joining us today for November's Heritage Tourism Conversation. I think this is my sixth one already. Cheryl and I were talking about how time flies. I'm really excited to have Cheryl Hargrove joining us today. She has literally written the book on cultural heritage tourism. If you aren't familiar with her work, I think you're going to learn a ton from her today. She has been in this field for a long time. She was the National Trust for Historic Preservation's first director of heritage tourism, and she has held a variety of other really cool jobs since then and has helped countless organizations develop cultural and heritage tourism plans, including probably a lot of you on this call. Cheryl is going to spend about the first half hour talking about the five principles of cultural and heritage tourism. Feel free to pop questions in the chat, and we'll do some Q&A in the second half of the webinar. So, Cheryl, take it away.
The Five Steps
Cheryl Hargrove: Thank you so much, Heidi, and thank you all for joining us on a Monday afternoon, East Coast time. This may be a primer. This may be something you already know. But it never ceases to amaze me when I talk to people about the five steps and five principles of heritage tourism that we developed at the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the early 1990s. It used to be four steps, and I'll go into that in a moment. I thought it might be good to revisit them, because I think they are still very relevant to what we're doing. So this will be a quick overview of those five principles and steps, and how they relate to you today. Then Heidi and I are going to have a conversation, and I hope you'll join in with questions about where our industry sector is going and what we need to do to advance it.
When I walked in the door at the National Trust, there was a definition of what heritage tourism was. People have been traveling to historic sites for centuries, but we needed something to help people understand the difference between this industry sector and others that are mass market. Remember, this was 1990. The definition has gone through a couple of iterations, especially to recognize that it's not just focusing on the historic side, but also the cultural and natural aspects, to make it place based. But the key words here are authentically representing the stories and people, past and present. It is very much a living definition. For a destination, it's not just where you step back in time. It's really in context with all of the elements that make a destination unique.
Heidi mentioned that we have five steps. When we started at the National Trust, we only had four steps. It stopped at market. But one of the things I found later on, when I was doing my book, is that we really needed something that looked at managing for growth and sustainability and also measuring our impact, because one of the things we were always asked is why cultural heritage tourism is important. That's where this fifth step came in. It follows a process many destinations use already. You start with an assessment, then create a plan, then look at how you're going to develop or enhance what you have. That really is key: not focusing on what you may need, but on what you have and how that can be bumped up or accelerated. Then marketing, so that you really do have a positive impact. Then managing for growth, knowing that you have a capacity management issue, especially at a lot of historic sites that were not designed for lots of visitors.
One of the things that has transpired over the last 30 years is that we have focused more on the intangible. Those are the stories and the traditions, the aspects of cultural heritage tourism that may not be in the built environment. They may be musicians performing. They may be in the food. They may be in a lot of other things that give a place its personality, character, and identity. So it's about thinking about it in holistic ways.
We're also looking at why cultural heritage tourism is still around some 35 years after the Trust started this program, and at the relationship between preservation and promotion. We have an audience that is thirsty for this. They want to learn something new. They want to immerse themselves. They're good explorers. They don't mind going off the beaten path. And most importantly, they like to spend money and stay longer, and the shopping element is usually place based or local. Those are things I think are really significant for us to lean into as we look at cultural heritage tourism as a segment. We're finding that more and more general leisure travelers may go for recreation, but then they want that cultural heritage piece about what makes the destination different. It's also about self-discovery and self-fulfillment.
The Five Principles
Cheryl Hargrove: I want to get into the five principles, because I do think they really are the foundation for our industry segment. The first is to focus on authenticity and quality. There's been a lot of talk about authenticity. Maybe it's overused now, but when we started, authenticity really wasn't a word. This happens to be the Earl Scruggs Center, which is in an old courthouse that was going to be abandoned. It was reused as a really world-class museum focusing on one of their hometown favorites, the musician Earl Scruggs. So think about how to convert historic sites so that they really do contribute to the place experience.
Many of you know Ellis Island. The hospital adjacent to Ellis Island, where many, many immigrants went, is under restoration, and it is basically a hard-hat tour now that a preservation trust is working on. They bring it to life with the artist JR using pictures of immigrants, so you really get a sense of place, perspective, and context. It's also making sure we think about music. This happens to be the Zydeco Cajun Prairie Scenic Byway in Louisiana. On Saturday mornings at Fred's Lounge, they have music that is in French and is broadcast live, so that culture is continued, which is very important. I also think we need to make sure we're not losing sight of our natural environment as place. I love the Farm/Art DTour that the Wormfarm Institute did for many years. It really helped you understand the value of a vista and put place in context as part of that experience.
The second principle is to preserve and protect. A sign that says "here once stood" is just not as impactful as being able to look at the waterfront and the historic buildings and the other things that are very important to understanding place. This happens to be Napier, New Zealand, which had a massive earthquake that leveled the entire community in the 1930s, and they decided to rebuild it in Art Deco. What's interesting is that they've carried that through in all of their preservation efforts. They do tours in vintage cars with people dressed up, and they have an Art Deco festival every year with fly-ins. So they really lean into their architecture as part of their environment. For those from Kansas, the Native Stone Scenic Byway shows how these elements define our landscapes as well, and having restoration workshops makes sure those elements continue to exist and even become a training opportunity.
It's also looking at craft, both indigenous and contemporary, and making sure people understand it. The first time I made one of these baskets, I understood why the price tag was what it was, because of the intense time and expertise required. My basket looked nothing like this. That leads me to placemaking and placekeeping. Placemaking is a term a lot of you may use for your development activities. But I think it's also important to think about placekeeping, to make sure the place doesn't change, especially if we have lots of visitors or new residents coming in, and that everyone feels like they belong and can appreciate the place they call home.
The third principle is to make sites and programs come alive. This was one of my favorites when I started at the National Trust, because I went to a lot of historic sites where I was told no. I couldn't go past the stanchion. There were all of these reasons I could not experience the place. This principle gives us permission to engage our visitors and make them part of the educational opportunity they want to explore. As we think about interpretation, we should be looking at learning objectives: how we want visitors to think, how we want them to feel, and what we want them to do when they leave your site, so that they come away more empowered, more educated, more informed, and really intertwined with your experience. This is again from the Farm/Art DTour and the Wormfarm Institute, and I love it because it brings agritourism to life. We can have fun with this. Yes, we have some dark history and some serious topics, but we can still bring them to interpretive strategies that are really creative.
It's also looking beyond the traditional. This happens to be the parking garage next to the library in Kansas City. What I love about it is that it's not only infrastructure, but it was community driven as to which books would be displayed. That's a really cool way of thinking about all the elements in our community, not just the buildings, that could tell a story about what we value. This is kind of a grainy picture, but it's from a literary destination that turned benches into that kind of "oh, there's a connection here" moment. Thinking creatively about infrastructure is something I don't think we do a very good job of. Main Street started it, but we have opportunities to carry it further. And then there are things like History Happy Hour, which started in Minnesota. It's an opportunity to move beyond the standard nine to five and engage visitors with a glass of wine or a game or some kind of interactive activity that gives them a new perspective on a place they maybe haven't been involved with. It's a great chance to bring in new audiences.
The fourth one is interesting, in that overtourism was not a word we used in the 1990s, but it certainly fits today. It's about finding the fit between community and tourism, and how culture, heritage, and tourism fit together in the communities where we work. That's reflected in engagement strategies, economic impact strategies, planning, capacity management, and other things. One fun example of how museums and community interact is the Sandcastles Children's Museum in Ludington, Michigan. It was created because kids needed an indoor facility when there was inclement weather, since they're right next to Lake Michigan and a park. They brought some of the area's major attractions into the museum, like the Badger, the ferry that crosses the lake, along with the ice cream shop and the bank. It also became a great place for community functions, because people loved being able to identify with their place.
Or the Trailing of the Sheep Festival in Idaho. Newcomers who were mountain biking on the pathway were a little unsettled when the sheep came down in the fall, because of all the poop. The community had to remind them that the sheep were there a lot longer than the new residents. So it became an opportunity to talk about the importance of the sheep industry, which at one time was second only to Sydney's, and a way to document ranchers' stories and commemorate this unique part of the heritage. Or in the case of Colquitt, Georgia, which had double-digit unemployment and a real racial divide, they looked at how to bring people together for healing and to share stories. They started a play called Swamp Gravy. It was listed in the American Bus Association's top 100 events, it has been a real economic driver for the community, and it has been named Georgia's official folk life play.
The last principle is collaborate. I think this is where we really need to do a better job of bringing all the partners together who can make an impact. One partnership I think is really unique is in Virginia City, Nevada, an old mining town. In the 1880s, it was better for you to drink gin than water because of the quinine. So they partnered with a private-label gin distillery and created their own Cemetery Gin. At the visitor center and in saloons, they sell bottles of it, and a dollar goes back to cemetery preservation. It's made with local Nevada products, so the berries are very distinct, and it's now an award-winning gin. It's a win-win. There's also the amazing work in the Blue Ridge that started with the craft heritage trails, went to the farm, garden, and countryside trails, and then expanded to other kinds of trails. I know we have several trail people here. We're finding that if people have a particular interest, whether it's music or craft, they want a critical mass of those activities, and trails provide that. I happen to love food and travel on my stomach, so I was particularly fond of the Butler County Donut Trail, which brings together 13 different sites where you can experience their flavors. So that's a quick run through the five principles of cultural and heritage tourism. Heidi, shall we answer some questions or go into our discussion?
Getting Started and Volunteer-Run Sites
Heidi Schlag: Yes, let's. I'd love questions in the chat. I have a list, but I'd love for folks on the call to have the opportunity to ask anything they have. We'll give people a second. But Cheryl, a high-level question you can answer while people type: for folks who hear everything you just said and are excited and passionate about exploring the heritage and culture of their town or destination, but don't have any sort of formalized plan, what are the first steps they should take to get something like this going?
Cheryl Hargrove: If there's not an inventory, that's the first step. It really is about finding out what you have, and then also looking at whether it is visitor ready. That's critical, because you need stages so that you can say, let's market what is visitor ready. Then you can look at whether there are particular themes that come up, really analyzing what you have. It's also looking at what you don't have, or what is missing, which may require a little more investigation. I've just finished another book focusing on personality of place, and one of the things I'm looking at are all the intangibles: the people who are the legacy bearers, the people who have the stories. How do we make sure we're capturing those so they can be part of the dialogue and that wisdom is passed on to future generations? It's also looking at what the community values. Is there a long-standing legacy business that everybody goes to? You want to make sure it can be around for future generations. We had a lot of retirements during the pandemic, and it's anticipated that more small businesses are going to close or transition, so helping that along matters too. It's really understanding what you have and what stage it's at, whether it's visitor ready, needs some other help, or has other opportunities. From that, you can start putting together a plan and setting priorities for what's going to be most impactful, not only for the community, but for attracting visitors. Then think about what interpretation is needed. Walking through those five steps is really important. And one critical thing is making sure you set out with particular goals and know what you want as an outcome. How are you going to measure success? What does success look like? We don't always think about that, and we need to, so we can make sure we stay on track.
Heidi Schlag: Great. We have a couple of questions, which I'll get to in a second, but I wanted to pull on a thread a little bit. You talked about collaboration as one of the five principles. What I have experienced is that there are lots of nonprofits out there doing really great work preserving the heritage and culture of their destinations. But in a lot of cases, they are not very well funded. They have one staff person, or they're volunteer run, and they're not able to be open every weekend or keep regular enough hours that their tourism office, their DMO, is comfortable promoting them. How do you suggest destinations tackle that? Is it some sort of collaborative model, or do you have other solutions?
Cheryl Hargrove: Absolutely, I think it is a collaborative model. We're even seeing nonprofits think about whether they need shared boards, rather than all having siloed organizations, and how to build the capacity to do this. Maybe XYZ historic house is open on the third weekend and another is open on the fourth, alternating so that people can volunteer and build a base that way. Seasonality is an issue, so think about whether there are people coming in, or people you could recruit. If you have a college nearby, that's a great way to recruit students who could be docents, and then they're going to invite their friends. That happens quite regularly in some of the places I work with. It brings in a younger audience and also a younger perspective, like, "This could be a really interesting tour I could put together." And there are sometimes grants available for those kinds of programs, so you can get funding as well as recruit docents. But you raise a very good point. If you are not open to the public on a regular basis, you're not carrying the responsibility of heritage tourism, so you need to figure out how you're going to carry out your mission some other way. If having visitors is important, then you have to figure it out, whether that's board recruitment where a board member has to work one Saturday a month, or whatever it may be. You need to have the doors open.
Audience Questions: Preservation, Marketing, and Placekeeping
Heidi Schlag: Thank you. So, a couple of questions. Elena asks, what advice do you have for balancing access to heritage tourism with preservation?
Cheryl Hargrove: I think the best way is to get people involved in preservation activities, so they think, "How could I be part of a cleanup?" I was very involved with Tourism Cares when they used to do projects at the national parks, where we would paint benches and pick up debris and do all kinds of things, and it felt really good. The joy is that people will pay to do that, because they feel like they're investing in something that matters and that's going to move the needle. If you noticed in that third principle, what people want today is to be involved. They do not want just a passive experience. There's a new trend called impacttainment from the Future 100, and I'll be glad to put it in the chat. It's a free trend report that comes out every year. Many of you who've worked with me know I religiously go there, because they have really good trends. They identified immersive experiences and destination stewardship many years ago. Impacttainment is designed to help people think about how they can make a difference while they're somewhere or when they leave. That's the transformational experience Joe Pine talks about in his new book, where visitors become your muscle. And to the person who asked about not being able to be open, can you have community workdays? At least you're getting more exposure, getting help with the things you need to do, and maybe finding people who are interested in helping out more.
Heidi Schlag: Great. Linda asks, marketing is a challenge, and everyone is so dependent on Facebook. What are other ways to market outside of the local community to bring in new and younger people?
Cheryl Hargrove: Well, with social media, you can do a TikTok video. It doesn't have to be Facebook. Let's face it, young people do follow social media. But also, where can you get projects in schools? For the person on the call who's in Washington State, there's a classroom that built an app for a historical society as a class project. It was really cool, and the students all said, "Hey, I want to do this, and I want to be a part of it." So we have to be creative about how to get them involved. How many of you have an advisory board made up of kids? Or a focus group with kids to find out where they get information? Have you had a group of kids walk through your site and tell you whether it's cool? Have them be secret shoppers for your experience and give you feedback. If we're trying to attract younger audiences, and that applies to Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z as well, getting their feedback is one of the first steps.
Heidi Schlag: I would also say, and some of you may have heard this story before, I do hearth cooking at a local museum. One day, 10- and 11-year-old girls came through, saw a historic loom in the corner, and said, "We know how to use a loom like that." I said, "That's great! How did you learn that skill?" And they said, "On YouTube." With Gen Alpha, the kids still in school, and even with adults, people are really craving analog activities: getting away from phones and digital devices and doing something with their hands, with family or friends. YouTube and TikTok are filling that void, and that's something museums, historic places, and cultural sites could really step into. You have people with these skills. So figuring out how to offer in-person workshops, or putting your own digital content online, is also meeting the needs of these younger generations.
Cheryl Hargrove: Great point, Heidi. Condé Nast Traveler just came out with their best of 2026 trends, and one of them is grandma and grandpa getaways. It's not just for grandparents. It's for them and their grandchildren. And the Future 100 focuses on analog travel and talks about quilting bees. To your point about hearth cooking, it's anything that gives a sense of community, where people can feel more engaged and part of the experience. I will never forget walking into a visitor center where ladies were working on a quilt. You could just go in and do a stitch, and then they were going to hang it up in the visitor center afterwards. These were local ladies who liked to get together, but it created an activity in what would otherwise be a static environment.
Heidi Schlag: Great. Laura says, "I love the notion of placekeeping and had not heard that term, but it is so critical in rural areas that are averse to change." Which I think is a great point. Is there anything you want to say about working in rural areas in particular?
Cheryl Hargrove: The term actually started with Roberto Bedoya, from Oakland, in a neighborhood where people were suggesting the neighborhood change, down to the paint colors. And residents said, "No, this is who we are. This is reflective of us." It goes back to having understanding, knowledge, communication, and trust, and asking what is important to keep. It could be a place where you say, "We don't want visitors to go there." If you remember the movie A River Runs Through It, in Montana there was a lot of debate about certain fishing places that local residents wanted to keep for themselves. In Vancouver, and this isn't rural, there was a neighborhood that said, "We do not want you to promote us. People will find us, but we don't want you to promote us." So the visitors bureau just removed them from the map. People still find the place, because it's beautiful. For rural communities, it's about understanding where there's tension. Do they want to keep a place just for the sake of keeping it, or are there things they really revere and want to make sure are around for future generations? Or do they want to help new residents understand the value of what they have? That becomes a different conversation.
Heidi Schlag: Which we can return to, because that's an important conversation also.
Cheryl Hargrove: It's a very important conversation, and there are lots of strategies for it.
Collaboration, Planners, and Elected Officials
Heidi Schlag: Logan asks, can you speak more about the collaboration slide? Have you seen communities struggle with collaboration, and what are your tips to improve?
Cheryl Hargrove: One of the things is language. When I joined the National Trust, I came from tourism, and we didn't realize at first that when we talked about research, we were talking about two different things: market research and historical research. So getting to a common language is first. It also starts with being willing to listen, and then asking how you can fit into that group's agenda, or how you can work together to make a bigger impact rather than working in silos. That's the issue I feel is so important. Rather than saying we're just historic sites, or cultural attractions, or arts organizations, we're all in the same community. We all need to support each other and lift each other up so that we can all be successful.
Heidi Schlag: I want to take that concept and back up a little, because part of this whole process is planning, and having your elected officials and your planning department in on the conversation. Can you speak to how you've seen that work and the challenges that might arise? Just the other day, we were seeing headlines about the Kirby Mansion in Houston, which was just torn down and is being replaced by a gas station. This type of thing is happening all over the country. As history and culture lovers, how do we start to have that conversation with the planners and elected officials who are making those larger planning decisions?
Cheryl Hargrove: It's all about relevance: whether people feel that a site is relevant to them today and has some kind of purpose. I had many deliberations with people at the National Trust about needing to save every building. Well, it's not just about saving the building. It's about how you're going to make it a contributing asset to your community, something people will value and want to walk into. Oftentimes these sites disappear because no one has valued them, or a small group of people has kept them for themselves. Have you invited the elected officials to tour your building? Have you talked about your aspirations for it, and not just when you need something or in a time of crisis? That's where we need to be more proactive rather than reactive. We need to think, "We've got that building. So-and-so is interested in this. Let's see how we can pull that together." That's how opportunities manifest in communities that are doing really, really well, large and small.
Heidi Schlag: That's a nice segue into community support, and how you want your community to understand the relevance of tourism and the importance of its heritage and culture, so that they stand up when a historic building is threatened. In Frederick, they're trying to build a cricket stadium on a historic property. You need to have the community invested well before the final vote.
Cheryl Hargrove: Right. And it needs to be more than just numbers. It needs to be testimonies. It needs to be passion. It needs to be story. It needs to be connected, so that an elected official, or whomever, sees that yes, this has an economic impact, but it also has meaning and value. We sometimes lose that, especially in tourism. We talk about numbers. We don't really talk about impact. I'm glad we're moving in that direction. It's not just about heads and beds. It's about providing a transformational experience that has changed somebody's life by going to this property or this experience.
Heidi Schlag: So how do you make that impactful story resonate as much as the dollars and cents? I've had people say to me, "I'm never going to be able to prove the value of my historic site through impact the way a hotel or a gas station is contributing to the bottom line." What are some tips for those of us on this call to make that case?
Cheryl Hargrove: I think it begs the question of why people are coming to that hotel or that gas station. I actually worked for a hotel, so I've been on that side of the industry as well, and I always said I need all the attractions. I need those other elements that help people understand they need to stay overnight, and that make them want to come back. That's where we help educate that it's not an either/or. It is very much an and.
Heidi Schlag: Okay. Ali says, "I hope I'm not stepping on toes. However, I work in a city but live and am a historian in a small rural town, and building trust with rural folks is so, so important. If they don't trust you, you'll never be able to get off the ground." So, yes, underlining that.
Cheryl Hargrove: Absolutely, you're not stepping on toes. That is probably one of the most valuable statements here today. Building that trust takes time. It also takes, as I'm sure you've proven, going to someone and listening to what is important to them, not just what's important to you.
Volunteers and Interpretation
Heidi Schlag: Great point. Leonor asks, can you cover growing capacity with volunteers?
Cheryl Hargrove: Portland, Maine, does a great job, because they have seasonality and a volunteer recruitment program. There are lots of recruitment programs out there. I happen to sit on the boards of two organizations, and the one thing I hate is when somebody asks, "Will you join?" but doesn't tell me what my time commitment will be or what's really involved. The best volunteer recruitment and capacity programs I've seen are the ones that say, "You need to commit eight hours a week, and this is what you'll be doing." Here are the different things you can do: be public facing, work in the gift shop, help with activities, events, and programs. We need somebody who can stuff envelopes. We need somebody who can write thank-you notes. It'll take this amount of time. That kind of structured recruitment is, I've found, the most effective in any volunteer program. Then it's a contract, and they understand that you're relying on them. There also has to be some benefit and reward, so recognition is always important. If you have an annual meeting, you can thank them. One organization gives a bowl every year to a volunteer, and it's very prestigious, in recognition of that continued support. And always list those people.
Heidi Schlag: Great. Laura says, "I love your slide that said think, feel, act. The first lesson I ever learned in historic interpretation was know, feel, do, as a way to engage with your audience. If you want people to care, stir up an emotion for them to feel. I use know, feel, do in every aspect of my life now when I want to inspire and leave an impact." So she's glad that tourism is embracing that. Laura was actually a previous guest on Heritage Tourism Conversations. She and I had a great chat about heritage tourism and outdoor recreation, so check out my YouTube if you want to catch that conversation.
How the Field Has Changed
Heidi Schlag: So, Cheryl, let's turn a little and talk about challenges and opportunities in this field. You have been in the field a long time. Can you first speak to how it has evolved during your career, to set us up for looking forward?
Cheryl Hargrove: At one point, cultural and heritage tourism was about getting you to a destination. Now we've got all these niche segments: music tourism, film tourism, food tourism, sustainable tourism, and all these other monikers that help drill down. That can sometimes be isolating, when first they've got to come to the place. I always say most people may come for the history or the culture or the music or the food, but they're coming to a destination, and they're going to ask, "What else can I do?" So we need to make sure the outdoor recreation opportunities are there. If they're out birding in the morning, what are they going to do during the day before they go back birding in the afternoon? Do we have something they could do at night? That's where history happy hours or game nights at historic sites come in. It's filling up those itineraries so we have the critical mass of activities that are really worth visiting, and spending money.
That's the second piece. Maybe you don't charge at your museum, but make sure you've got a place for people to invest. If they've had a good time, they can leave money at the table and show that yes, they had a good time. The third thing is that we've gone from very passive, open-the-doors experiences to the expectation of "I want to immerse myself, have conversations with locals, and be very involved and interactive." We think that means technology, but as you raised, Heidi, it doesn't. It means we just have to offer opportunities for engagement, something as simple as a quilting bee, a food tasting, or a cleanup day where people can be involved.
On the business side of cultural heritage tourism, though, I think we are very underrepresented at the tourism industry's table. I used to be involved with U.S. Travel Association, Destinations International, Travel South, and all kinds of organizations, and I'd go to World Travel Market and other events. Even the conferences have leaned more toward data and market research rather than how we all need to work together. I think that's a void, and we need to figure out how to get back to a point where the heritage community, the cultural community, historical societies, and arts councils aren't just talking to themselves, not just going to the American Association for State and Local History, the American Alliance of Museums, or the National Association for Interpretation, but are really present at state tourism conferences and industry functions like IPW, where we can share our voice.
Heidi Schlag: That was one of the reasons I started this series to begin with. I was attending all of these types of conferences, tourism, outdoor rec, museums, cultural, and everybody was having the same conversations, but within their individual little silos. And I thought, wait a second, we should all be talking together anyway, because we have the same customer base, we're trying to provide very similar experiences, and we're trying to encourage visitors to stay longer and spend more. So I created this as a way for us to start having those conversations among all the different types of organizations represented here.
Looking Ahead
Heidi Schlag: So, Cheryl, what are some of the opportunities as we close out '26 and move into '27? What do you hope for the field, and how can all of us on this call get involved?
Cheryl Hargrove: First, I want to thank you for taking that initiative. I complimented you on it, because this is something we need. I've been involved in writing books, and I've really fallen down on that aspect of collaboration, which we really do need. I think we need forums to get together. For instance, there was the Cultural Heritage Tourism Exchange, which I put on in 2012, 2014, and again in 2016. There was also a Cultural Heritage Tourism Summit through the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, which included representatives from all 50 states. I think we need some kind of convening like that. We also need to articulate what's important to all of us. Are the principles still relevant, or do we need something else? Do we need new research? I think we are woefully under-recognized, in part because we don't have research that drills down to value and impact. So what do we need to do? And we need to galvanize new generations coming in. There are lots of people in this field, but we don't really have a formalized community. Could that be an opportunity?
Heidi Schlag: Absolutely. One small thing I've been doing that other folks could also do is proposing sessions at whatever conference you go to about a collaboration you had with another sector. Bringing that idea of collaboration across sectors has been well received in my experience. Or if you're able to do that locally, in a regional or local group, just encourage folks to see each other as collaborators and not competitors. I think that goes a long way.
Cheryl Hargrove: Absolutely. I want to give a nod to Danielle Lewis Jones. One of the things we need to be mindful of is not always going to the obvious audiences, but also to the audiences that maybe aren't always heard or asked. We need to make sure they are at the table, that it's their story, and that things are not commodified or commercialized without benefit to them. That breaks down trust before anything else.
Heidi Schlag: Absolutely, a great point. Do we have other questions? We have a few minutes left to wrap up.
Cheryl Hargrove: I'd like to ask a question of everyone. Would you like a gathering of cultural heritage tourism practitioners to share information and ideas? Oh, we're getting a good response. Thank you.
Heidi Schlag: Absolutely. I definitely think it's something we all have to keep top of mind. Everybody on this call is doing really great work. I see so many cool projects come across my LinkedIn and Facebook feeds, and any way we can find to share those and help each other out goes a long way.
Cheryl Hargrove: Yes. When I was with the Trust, and when Amy Webb took over as director and was there many years, and with the work on Route 66 the National Trust has been doing, one of the most helpful things was the publications they put out. They shared stories and best practices. There is so much going on out there, and I try to find out as much as I can. I'm a former journalist, so it's in my DNA. Having a forum to toot your own horn and share what's exciting, and also share lessons learned, is valuable. NAI, AASLH, ALHFAM, and AAM all have chat rooms where you can ask questions, but they get pretty technical, and they aren't always the fuller story we could take to a broader audience to share our impact.
Funding
Heidi Schlag: Jane says one of the biggest challenges they face is funding, and she'd love to brainstorm interesting fundraising ideas and out-of-the-box grants.
Cheryl Hargrove: I was very fortunate to get a lot of American Express funding when I was at the National Trust, partly because I made sure all of our historic sites took American Express. That's the first consideration. But it taught me a lot about what funders want and need. If you haven't gone to your community foundation, to me that is always the first opportunity, because your community foundation is invested in the community. But we also need to look at new sources. For instance, is there a voluntary contribution program you can get your visitors involved with? I know of three, and I'm involved in two of them, having helped launch them, so your visitors are helping you fund. There are also community groups that want to help fund, like 100 Women Who Care, who get together four times a year and give $10,000 to organizations throughout the year. So there are a lot of local opportunities. And then it's thinking out of the box.
One project I worked on was funded by EDA for a health purpose, because we could demonstrate that on the trails of the historic sites you could do more than 10,000 steps. We partnered with a hospital to be a respite for cancer patients, because there were quiet places on the grounds, and we did sensory rooms for kids as well. It's about thinking of creative ways that are also appropriate for your organization and your site. Funders will come to good projects. It's much better to think of a good project that's going to help your mission, then go to the funder.
Heidi Schlag: And those examples underline how important collaboration is. If you're asking a community foundation for a grant, and they're able to give money that supports multiple organizations working together to solve community needs, that's a really compelling case you're making.
Cheryl Hargrove: I'm going to put my contact information in the chat, so if people have follow-up questions, they're welcome to reach out to me individually.
Heidi Schlag: Thank you again, Cheryl, for your time. This has been a really great conversation. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in. Please reach out to Cheryl or me if you have any questions.
Cheryl Hargrove: Thank you all. I appreciate it very much.
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