However, it is during and in the follow-up to the U.S. site visit that the program emphasis shifts from participants learning concepts, to personally experiencing them, and on to them applying them in their home units. Most of the site visits will be spent in the field visiting protected areas offering a range of tourism programs.
These forests, parks, and reserves include a wide variety of habitat types and cultural resources and are managed by federal, state, and local governments; non-governmental organizations; and private landowners. Visits to protected areas of different management categories, governance types, and types and levels of tourism activities will provide participants with unparalleled opportunities to learn about tourism planning and management approaches in protected areas and adjacent gateway communities.
Access to assigned mentors provides important support to participants or participant teams as they continue to develop, adapt, finalize, and begin implementing their projects.
Additional specific technical support can be arranged via virtual conversations with community members, via webinars that focus on topics that pertain to a large number of the participants’ projects, and through use of the program’s digital platform to share ideas, case studies, questions, successes and challenges with their cohort colleagues. With each passing year, this pool of potential professional support will also grow. Ultimately, participants have the opportunity to evolve into leaders and mentors to those that follow, sharing case studies, presenting at virtual conferences, providing presentations and training to those in their home agencies, communities, and networks.
