Executive Summary

On August 7, 2002, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) sponsored an issues forum in Espanola, New Mexico, on heritage tourism and the Federal government. Representatives of State, tribal, and local interests from Northern New Mexico offered perspectives on their public-private partnerships involving heritage tourism. Initiatives discussed included the National Scenic Byways Program, the Resource Conservation and Development Program, the Rural Economic Development Through Tourism Project, several U.S. Forest Service activities, and the proposed Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area. The importance of respecting cultural diversity in all of these programs was stressed.

Participants noted some of the problems that can threaten the success of heritage tourism initiatives, including insufficient attention to questions of sustainability, a shortage of development mechanisms, inconsistent and sometimes inadequate participation by Federal agencies, and lack of planning to offset potential negative impacts of heritage tourism. Attendees also offered a number of specific suggestions for how the Federal government could improve its support of heritage tourism, ranging from creating new Federal programs, to enhancing use of existing programs, to encouraging Federal land managers to be better and more frequent partners in heritage tourism initiatives.

Despite its regional perspective, several conclusions can be drawn from the meeting that are broad enough in scope to merit careful consideration by ACHP as it further explores the role of the Federal government in heritage tourism. These include:

• While new Federal funding to support heritage tourism should be considered, the Federal government should work to encourage the full and effective use of existing funding sources.
• Federal land managing agencies should be encouraged to participate in public-private partnerships that would promote heritage tourism.
• The Federal government should consider development of a centralized or coordinated program to support heritage tourism through promotion, development, and marketing. Such a program could include dissemination of heritage tourism “best practices.”
• Any Federal programs promoting heritage tourism through funding and technical assistance should be premised on local planning and decisionmaking. Checks and balances should be in place, however, to ensure that funded projects are sustainable.
• The Federal government should consider how it can encourage more direct economic benefit from heritage tourism for preserving, maintaining, and operating the historic sites that attract visitors, rather than have visitor tax revenues and other public financial support going predominantly to new facility development or promotion.
• Any Federal programs to promote heritage tourism should respect the uniqueness of each area’s history and its multiple cultures, and help the public understand how the interaction of those cultures contributed to the area’s heritage.

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