Trail Town Conference Draws 130 Attendees

Conference sessions were held in several downtown venues in Pottstown, so that participants could see firsthand some of the components of a budding trail town, including a community college, performing arts center, borough hall and chamber of commerce. 

The idea driving the conference is that towns along the trail can bolster community revitalization efforts if municipal and business leaders work together to make their towns a destination for trail users. Conference attendees learned a lot about the importance of trails as economic drivers, as well as the value of heritage tourism.

Keynote speaker Katherine Adams, the senior director at GOZAIC, the website of Heritage Travel Inc., a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, spoke about the role of culture and heritage travelers.

“They want to go to places that have retained their character,” Adams said.

Because towns like Pottstown, and many others along the Schuylkill River Trail, have unique architecture, interesting restaurants, and nearby historic sites, they have a lot to offer people who are interested in culture and heritage, she said.

And the trail itself can be a vehicle to attract people to those towns and cultural and heritage sites.  Todd Poole, president of 4ward Planning LLC, gave a presentation that included information from a 2009 user survey of the Schuylkill River Trail conducted by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.

The Schuylkill River Trail, which has 56 completed miles but will one day total about 130 miles, attracted over 800,000 visits and generated $7.3 million in direct economic impact in 2008, according to that survey.

Poole encouraged the audience to think of ways to market their towns, businesses and attractions to those trail users, and to people who live along the trail.

Other conference sessions focused on the role of culture and heritage in drawing tourists, the importance of hospitality, funding issues and more.

This is the SRHA’s second Trail Town conference. The first, held last year, also focused on the economic development potential of trails. This year’s conference highlighted the SRHA’s new Heritage Towns and Tours Toolkit, which provides resources to communities seeking to draw trail users to their local attractions and businesses

While the trail town concept can be applied to any community located along a trail, those along the Schuylkill River Trail have a particular advantage. Because the Schuylkill River Trail will, when complete, run 130 miles, it is more likely to attract tourists from out of town. Studies show that people who come from out of town will spend four times as much as local users. Those who stay overnight will spend even more.

The Schuylkill River Trail will eventually stretch from Philadelphia to Pottsville. Three major sections are now finished and well-utilized: Philadelphia to Mont Clare (26 miles), Pottstown to Reading (19 miles) and Hamburg to Auburn (7 miles). A new 5.5 mile section from Cromby to Parkerford is expected to be completed this fall, and a signed on-road route from Reading to Hamburg will be in place in 2011.

The SRHA received grants to fund the conference from the William Penn Foundation, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, National Park Service, and the Pennsylvania Recreation and Park Society, Inc., as well as support from the Tri-County Area Chamber of Commerce.

More information, including some presentations from the conference, can be found on the Schuylkill River Heritage Area’s website at www.schuylkillriver.org.