By Susan Schrack Wood, Director of Communications, The League
“Our town can become a destination.” It is a statement uttered by many visionaries in towns and cities across America. Getting people to come visit a community, see its good assets and unique features, and support its local businesses is a goal for many, but it’s not always easy. When tourism goals and strategies have not historically been included in administrative discussions, it can be difficult to know where to begin, particularly for communities that have never thought they had the ability to attract visitors.
That last obstacle is often the most formidable of all: convincing your own residents that their town has something worth sharing with the world before you ever try to convince the outside world to come. For municipalities standing at this starting line, the conventional tourism playbook of building a visitors’ center, printing brochures, and sponsoring festivals is rarely enough on its own. The communities that break through tend to be the ones willing to think differently about what tourism actually is, who it is for, and what a “visitor experience” can look like in a town that has never hosted one before. What follows are some creative, non-traditional approaches that Pennsylvania municipalities and peer communities elsewhere have used to generate genuine visitor interest, not by inventing something artificial, but by reframing what was already there in ways that people outside the community had never been invited to see.
Understand Your Assets
The single biggest mistake municipal leaders make is skipping the asset inventory. Every town, no matter how small or overlooked, has something. The challenge is that locals stop seeing what visitors find remarkable. Erie and St Mary’s are two excellent examples of municipalities that capitalize on their unique features.
Before you spend a dollar on marketing or infrastructure, you need to conduct a rigorous audit of your community’s assets.
Your tourism asset inventory should examine the following categories:
- Natural assets: rivers, trails, parks, scenic viewsheds, wildlife corridors, and seasonal landscapes
- Historical and cultural assets: architecture, cemeteries, battlefields, ethnic heritage, industrial history, and local legends
- Culinary and agricultural assets: farms, orchards, local food producers, breweries, bakeries, and unique restaurants
- Arts and creative assets: murals, galleries, studios, music venues, and community theater
- Event and recreation assets: festivals, fairs, athletic facilities, and community gatherings
- Proximity assets: what are you near to? Many towns thrive by positioning themselves as the “gateway” or “base camp” for a nearby attraction
“Every town has something. The challenge is that locals stop seeing what visitors find remarkable.”
Define Your Tourism Identity
Once you know what you have, you need to make a strategic choice: what is your town’s primary tourism identity? Trying to be everything to everyone is the surest path to failure. The municipalities that succeed in tourism pick a lane and own it. Gettysburg has a lot of experience in creating an identity and evolving that identity as people’s interests change. Lititz is another example of creating a successful identity.
Common successful identities for Pennsylvania municipalities include the outdoor adventure town, the heritage and history destination, the arts and culture hub, the agritourism gateway, the culinary and craft beverage trail stop, and the event-driven weekend destination. These identities are not mutually exclusive, they can complement one another, but one should be the lead.
Your identity should be grounded in authenticity. Visitors are sophisticated. They can tell the difference between a community that genuinely reflects a heritage and one that has bolted on a “theme” for commercial purposes. The towns that develop loyal, return-visitor audiences are the ones where the tourism identity grows organically from real community character.
To settle on your identity, try forming a Tourism Identity Workshop with a cross-section of community stakeholders: business owners, long-time residents, young adults, cultural organizations, and your planning and economic development staff. Give everyone the opportunity to answer the question: “What do you love most about this place, and what do you wish the world knew about it?” The answer is usually your identity.
Build Welcoming Infrastructure
No amount of marketing will save a destination that isn’t ready to receive visitors. Before you invite people, you must honestly assess what happens when they arrive. Create “the tourist’s 48 hours” exercise: trace every step of a hypothetical visitor’s experience in your town from the moment they exit the highway to the moment they drive home.
Key infrastructure areas to evaluate and invest in include:
- Wayfinding and signage: Are your assets findable? Clear, well-designed directional and interpretive signage is one of the highest-return investments a municipality can make.
- Parking and accessibility: Adequate, convenient parking is non-negotiable for most tourists. ADA accessibility at key sites is both a legal obligation and a visitor experience issue.
- Public restrooms: This is unglamorous but critical. Clean, accessible public restrooms are cited repeatedly in visitor satisfaction surveys as a significant factor in whether people stay longer or return.
- Lodging: Work with your regional planning commission and economic development office to identify gaps in lodging supply. Consider how zoning accommodates short-term rentals, bed and breakfasts, and boutique hotels.
- Dining hours and options: A town where every restaurant closes at 7 p.m. cannot retain overnight visitors. Engage your restaurant community early about the opportunity to extend service.
- WiFi and connectivity: Visitors expect connectivity. Many states and regional organizations offer grant programs for public WiFi infrastructure in downtown districts.
- A physical visitor welcome point: Even a simple, well-staffed visitors center or welcome kiosk can dramatically improve the visitor experience and increase length of stay.
“No amount of marketing will save a destination that isn’t ready to receive visitors.”
Organize Your Stakeholders
Tourism is not a government program. It is an ecosystem. The municipality’s role is to create the conditions and framework within which the private sector, nonprofits, and community organizations can thrive together. This means you need an organizational structure that brings all the key players into alignment. State College is a borough that relies on stakeholder input and engagement.
At a minimum, you should establish a Tourism Advisory Committee with representation from hospitality and lodging, food and beverage, retail, arts and culture, outdoor recreation, local history organizations, and your chamber of commerce. This committee should have a clear mandate, meet regularly, and have a direct line to elected officials.
Many municipalities in Pennsylvania have found it valuable to create or partner with a formal Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) either a standalone entity or one housed within the chamber or a local economic development corporation. A DMO can focus exclusively on marketing and visitor development in ways that municipal government is structurally not well-suited to do.
You should also actively engage with your county and regional tourism promotion agencies. Building a strong relationship with that agency can unlock marketing support, cooperative advertising opportunities, and regional itinerary development that places your municipality in broader destination packages.
Develop a Funding and Sustainability Plan
Tourism development requires investment, and municipal budgets are constrained. The good news is that Pennsylvania has a rich ecosystem of funding sources available to municipalities serious about tourism-driven economic development. A thoughtful funding strategy will draw from multiple streams:
- Act 13 / Impact Fee Funds: In municipalities in gas-producing counties, these funds can be directed toward tourism-related infrastructure and amenities.
- DCED Grants: The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development offers multiple grant programs applicable to downtown revitalization, heritage tourism, and trail development.
- PHMC Grants: The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission administers grants for heritage tourism, historic preservation, and the interpretation of historic resources.
- DCNR Community Conservation Partnerships: For municipalities with natural assets, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources offers substantial grant funding for trail development, park improvements, and outdoor recreation infrastructure.
- RACP (Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program): For larger capital projects, RACP can fund significant tourism infrastructure investments.
- Federal programs: USDA Rural Development, EDA (Economic Development Administration), HUD CDBG, and others offer relevant funding streams depending on your community’s demographics and geography.
- Hotel Tax Revenue: If your municipality or county has a hotel tax, advocate for a meaningful portion to be reinvested in tourism development and marketing.
- Private and philanthropic investment: Local foundations, corporate sponsors, and individual philanthropists can be significant partners in heritage and cultural tourism development.
The key to funding sustainability is not dependence on any single source, but the development of a diversified, layered funding model that allows tourism programming to continue even as individual grant cycles end.
Market Authentically and Strategically
With your assets identified, your identity established, your infrastructure improving, your stakeholders organized, and your funding in place, you are ready to market. The principles of effective destination marketing have shifted dramatically in the digital era, and municipalities that succeed are those that embrace authentic storytelling over polished promotional messaging.
Your most powerful marketing asset is the genuine voices of your own community. Encourage residents and local business owners to share their stories on social media. Develop partnerships with travel bloggers, outdoor enthusiasts, food journalists, and cultural writers who can bring their audiences to your destination authentically. Invest in professional photography and videography that captures the real character of your community.
Digital marketing priorities for destination municipalities should include a well-designed, mobile-optimized tourism website; active social media presence on platforms relevant to your target visitor demographic; listings and reputation management on Google, TripAdvisor, and Yelp; presence on Pennsylvania tourism platforms including Visit PA; and email marketing to a growing subscriber list of past and prospective visitors.
In-person and print marketing should not be neglected. Brochure distribution through regional welcome centers and AAA offices, presence at outdoor recreation expos and travel shows, and cooperative marketing with nearby attractions and trail systems can all drive significant visitor traffic.
Tourism development is not a project with a beginning and end; it is an ongoing civic commitment. To manage it well, you must measure it. Establish baseline metrics before you begin your efforts and track them consistently. Key performance indicators for a municipal tourism program typically include estimated visitor counts and trends, visitor spending estimates (your county tourism agency can help with this), lodging occupancy rates and accommodation revenue, restaurant and retail sales tax receipts, downtown vacancy rates, new business formation in the visitor economy sector, and community sentiment surveys.
Review these metrics with your Tourism Advisory Committee at least annually. Be willing to adjust your strategy based on what the data tells you. Some initiatives that seem promising will underperform; others will exceed expectations. The municipalities that build durable tourism economies are the ones that treat this as an ongoing learning process rather than a one-time marketing campaign.
“Tourism development is not a project with a beginning and end — it is an ongoing civic commitment.”
“Tourism development is not a project with a beginning and end – it is an ongoing civic commitment.”
Article from the April 2026 Municipal Reporter | Tourism
