Outcome 5 Case Study
"Appropriately diverse and healthy economies"
The Tennessee Overhill Heritage Association started in 1990 in a region including three
counties and the three southern districts of the Cherokee National Forest. The program started as a pilot project
initiated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development.
Partnering with county chambers of commerce, county governments, U.S. Forest Service, and others has always been
essential to the association. Important parts of the association's work focus on expanding tourism in their region
and, in so doing, developing the local economy. While many different groups have been eager to support their efforts
to diversify and sustain the local economy, the association has often found itself in disagreement with the indicators
and measures identified by "experts" to evaluate their successes and failures.
Association members found that experts tended to measure progress using what they called "old established
units of measurement," focusing, for example, on the number of jobs created. They found that these measures
often overlooked important elements of success. For example, when observing an increase from one bed and breakfast
in 1990 to 15 five years later, an old-line economic development person might see 10 less-than-full-time jobs for
people who might have been retired anyway. Association members recognized the major contribution to the regional
infrastructure needed to sustain tourism represented by the B&Bs.
A general discomfort with conventional measures came into sharp focus when a state report on the impact of travel
and tourism by county showed two of the association's three counties moving right along and the third (incidentally,
located in between the first two) experiencing the greatest decline in the state. As a partially county-funded
organization that was supposedly developing tourism, the sharp decline called for immediate attention. After studying
the report, association members wondered how the county in the middle could have done so much worse than its neighbors
on either side and suspected that something must be incorrect. The county finance director reported that lodging
and sales taxes had risen during the same period, adding to suspicion. After contacting the state offices, association
members learned that the bad report was based on a 55 percent drop in one category-auto rentals. The person researching
the report remembers thinking, "Well that is all well and good, but we don't have auto rentals." Then
remembering, "Well, wait a minute, we do have a car lot that on rare occasions will rent a car." It turned
out that the car lot went from something like 20 cars rented to 10, yielding the decline and the label as the county
with the "greatest decline in travel and tourism of any county in the state."
This began the association's deliberate search for better units of measurement. Often their efforts to find meaningful
measures of economic progress were frustrating. Heritage Association staff noticed a huge increase in inquiries
about cabin rentals. Although no big hotels or convention centers had been built, several dozen rental cabins had
been, and it seemed they were being used. A problem arose when they tried to count the cabins systematically. No
county-level tracking system existed. They studied the building permit systems. One county did not require building
permits. Another's system was rather vague. The third county had a building permit system, but required a single
permit no matter how many cabins are built. Additionally, many rental cabins in all three counties were classified
officially as residents.
Service stations presented another challenge. When the association looked at service station sales over the preceding
seven years, they found a precipitous decline, as they did across the state. Then they realized that convenience
store/gas stations are self-defined and many do not report at all. Gasoline tax also proved a worthless indicator
because it is taxed at the point of entry to the state. Simple data to track economic changes did not seem to exist.
Despite the frustration, the Association found ways to measure their success. In 1990 only three organizations
even knew about the Tennessee Arts Commission in order to take advantage of their grants for hiring artists for
local festivals. After years of promotion and encouragement, largely by the Tennessee Overhill Heritage Association,
in 1995 10 associations applied for grants. Many small, local, community-based organizations that had not previously
known about the opportunity were now involved. A different kind of initiative had appeared. The Association also
monitored memberships in and composition of chambers of commerce throughout the region. In one chamber that membership
doubled and more of the members began to focus on tourism.
The Association decided to try to use some of what it learned in a study. They hired Middle Tennessee State University's
Business Research and Economic Development Center to study the impact of travel and tourism on their region. One
of the main goals for the study was to help identify indicators that the Association can monitor and to figure
out how to include these indicators in a report that would be understood by people in state government and others
inside and outside the region.
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