The town of Gorham, N.H., is making major changes in the way it plans for and manages tourism, which is very important to its economy and to quality of life for residents.  

Gorham is one of the towns that has been participating in the Center’s Rural Tourism Academy, which is designed to help communities better capitalize on outdoor recreation and tourism for community and economic benefit. 

“Our Rural Tourism Academy, with the support and facilitation of the Northern Forest Center and its collaborator, Future iQ, has taken the town’s outdoor recreation stakeholders from a reactive culture to a proactive group working on Destination Impact Management and creating sustainable outdoor recreation,” said Gorham Town Manager Denise Vallee. “The community workshops and Zoom sessions helped form a comprehensive report that includes a Community Action Plan to move these efforts forward.” 

After learning about the elements of sustainable tourism and reflecting on how Gorham performed against these elements and how important they are to the town’s future, participants in the Rural Tourism Academy put together a collective vision and set of priority projects that would move them toward this vision.  

Community members reviewed and affirmed the work done at the first Rural Tourism Academy session and weighed in with their sense of priorities, which contributed to a final plan that is being shared across the community. In late April, Gorham’s new Destination Management Committee will meet for the first time, and the community will choose initial projects to begin its destination management work.  

“Our Destination Management Committee is excited to begin work on a Visitor Pledge and an outdoor recreation-based website focused on providing information to both locals and visitors for every facet of our recreation activities,” said Vallee. “This process would not be so far along without the guidance and support of the Northern Forest Center’s staff and David Beurle of Future iQ.”