$15,600 grant for Western Erie Tourism

As Erie Canal enthusiasts have long known, biking, boating, dining and shopping along the tree-lined waterway and its historic villages are delightful ways to while away any warm weather day.

Now, a new tourism grant aims to heighten that time-honored pleasure by training local business and museum staff in the latest techniques for pampering, pleasing and engaging visitors.

Funded by the federal Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, the $15,625 Enhancing the Visitor Experience grant was awarded to the Landmark Society of Western New York and the Western Erie Canal Alliance, two non-profit organization dedicated to historic preservation and community revitalization in western New York.

'We want every tourist to canal-area shops and museums to leave thinking, 'Wow, that was great. Let's come again,'' said Peg Churchill, Alliance president.

Heritage tourism will breathe new life into canal communities. The grant is a critical key to making that happen.

The monies will provide training for 300 small business employees in traditional downtowns or Main Streets of western canal communities.

The hospitality workshops focus on tourism fundamentals as well as more targeted topics like Creating the Canal Experience and Delivering the Canal Experience. Sessions will be offered in winter and spring 2008 in preparation for the 2008 canal season.

The curriculum will have material tailored to western New York but will be useable for hospitality training across the canal system.

The second component of the initiative focuses on interpretation training for personnel of small museums and historical societies. Many of these small cultural institutions have collections of artifacts that relate to the Erie Canal and to the history of canal communities. The training will assist them with using their collections to tell the stories of the canal in innovative ways that engage the public. It will utilize a curriculum developed by the National Association for Interpretation and include basics of interpretation; definition and principles; knowing your audience; knowing your resource; program development using thematic approach; writing measurable performance objectives; program delivery techniques; and reaching the heritage tourist. The two-day training will be offered in fall 2007 for up to 25 participants.

For information about participating in these training opportunities, phone 585.546.7029 ext. 32.

This is the initial year of the Erie Canalway Grants Program, which seeks to fill a gap in funding for historic preservation, interpretation, and community revitalization projects in the canal corridor. Thirteen grant recipients were selected to receive a total $201,692 from the 2007 Pilot Grants Program.

The Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor is one of only 37 congressionally designated National Heritage Areas. This federal program's goals are to preserve and interpret New York's historic canal system and the communities along its banks.

Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor will assure that this national treasure will again serve as a key destination and source of renewal to more than 200 canal communities.