WESTERN CAROLINA HIGHER EDUCATION COMMISSION
Grant: $199,991 - Rural Business Cooperative Service - Sep. 16, 2009
No votes have been cast for this award yet
Join the conversation: Post a comment about this award
Award Description: This is a continuation proposal (Year 2) for Salkehatchie Lures and its related tourism product, Salkehatchie Stew, initially funded by an RBEG in early 2008. Together, they form a community and economic development/tourism project with the potential for maximum impact in the region. This project builds on the foundation laid by past RBEG projects led by the Salkehatchie Leadership Institute (SLI), including the Salkehatchie Arts initiative, and an RBOG project that developed a Regional Strategic Tourism Plan for the region. Salkehatchie Lures and Salkehatchie Stew build on that foundation in two distinct ways. Salkehatchie Lures is a tourism development, small business assistance, and marketing program this is implementing the recommendations of the Regional Tourism study done by the University of South Carolina International Tourism Research Institute completed in summer 2008. Salkehatchie Stew, a comprehensive tourism product and a focal point of the Lures effort, is a storytelling project that gathers community stories, uses them to develop a theatrical production in 2 communities and holds storytelling festivals combining local and professional storytellers in other communities, bringing in outside tourists and regional traffic and providing a source of increased revenue in the region. This project comes at a time of renewed statewide commitment to tourism as a form of economic development. SLI intends for this regional strategic effort to work in concert with the goals of the statewide tourism development plan. With these grant funds, SLI and its partners will work to build multiple tourism destinations in the region, using the Salkehatchie Arts Center, Salkehatchie Stew, and other assets indentified in the strategic plan and developed as part of the Lures project. The impact will be creating jobs, bringing tourism dollars into the region, providing residents with an outlet for their creativity and activities to enrich their lives, and building bridges to assist with future community and economic development efforts. Objective 1: Continue implementation of a master plan for tourism marketing and development in the Salkehatchie region. Evaluation: Continue assistance to existing promising sites/attractions as identified in strategic tourism plan and evaluate the results of the first year of the Lures project; Focus on the development of at least 6 undeveloped and underdeveloped tourism assets throughout the region; Work to attract/establish the related infrastructure needed to support tourism assets in the community, with at least one new business start-up in each of these categories: lodging, restaurants, and retail, for a total of at least 3 new businesses. Objective 2: Improve the business and economic climate in the Salkehatchie region. Evaluation: Create or retain a minimum of 525 jobs related to tourism throughout the Salkehatchie Region, as a direct result of the Salkehatchie Lures and Salkehatchie Stew initiative (510 retained and 15 created); Increase tourism traffic throughout the county by at least 10% from 2007 levels, measured by visitor logs at target sites; Provide tourism draws with the production of Salkehatchie Stew performances with 3 performances per county in Allendale and Hampton counties; Provide tourism draws by holding storytelling festivals in Bamberg, Barnwell, and Colleton counties; Provide a climate conducive to spin-off business creation in the region. Objective 3: Increased interaction among citizens of diverse backgrounds. Evaluation: Regular regional meetings are being held with tangible results; Salkehatchie Stew production performances and storytelling festivals reflect diverse backgrounds, ages, races, etc. coming together to celebrate this community and share its rich history with others; Involve a minimum of 50 volunteers, with at least 5 citizens representing each county, in the tourism development efforts. (Some counties will have more than 5, but each will have at least five.)
Project Description: None for this quarter. Project just awarded
Jobs Summary: None at this time (Total jobs reported: 0)
Project Status: Not Started
This award's data was last updated on Sep. 16, 2009. Help expand these official descriptions using the wiki below.
Funds from this award have been disbursed to sub-grantees. Click here to see a list of sub-grantees.
No comments have been added for this project.