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Roanoke Rapids
Theater and Carolina
Crossroads |
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Hope Plantation, Windsor, NC |
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Tourism is a major economic engine in North
Carolina’s Northeast Region and continues grow
as more and more visitors discover our natural,
cultural, historic and recreational resources.
North Carolina’s Northeast boasts some of the
state’s major tourism attractions including the
world-famous Outer Banks, Ocracoke Island,
Historic Halifax, and the Cape Hatteras National
Seashore. With the location of such attractions
as the Carolina Crossroads Music & Entertainment
District, a growing collection of tourism
clusters is emerging that mandates a regional
focus on the leisure, entertainment and tourism
industry for future business development.
The Northeast Commission's vision is to implement marketing
strategies that differentiate North Carolina’s
Northeast Region from other destinations,
incorporating a “hub and spoke” visitor
recruitment that focuses visitors to more rural
visitor attractions as a part of their visit to
major tourism
"hubs" in the
region.
The sixteen
counties in North Carolina’s Northeast Region
have many natural, historic, cultural and
recreational resources that represent distinctive
aspects of American heritage worthy of national
recognition.
North Carolina’s
Northeast Commission, with the support of the
region’s local chambers of commerce, tourism
professionals, arts councils and community and
economic development organizations, is
spearheading the Northeastern North Carolina
Heritage Area Initiative. This Initiative has
joined the communities in the Northeast Region
in a regional effort to strengthen and
revitalize their economies through heritage
tourism development. Legislation will be
introduced in this session of Congress
to support the designation of the Northeastern North Carolina
Heritage Area.
This prestigious
designation would provide the mechanism to
preserve the Northeast Region’s nationally
significant landscape, create a new economic
development and tourism tool for our region,
develop new partnerships, and introduce
Northeastern North Carolina to the hearts and
minds of all Americans. Designation as a
National Heritage Area will provide national
recognition to our individual counties and
region as a whole, as well as provide federal
and private funding to preserve and promote our
historic, cultural, natural and recreational
resources.
Specific
activities associated with the Leisure/Entertainment
& Heritage Tourism Marketing include:
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Marketing
support for regional tourist/entertainment
destination attractions such as The Roanoke
Rapids Theater and Carolina Crossroads Music
& Entertainment District along the I-95
corridor
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Developing
new visitor opportunities for smaller
tourist venues using a “hub and spoke”
marketing plan
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Workforce
development and employee recruitment to
support the region’s growing tourism
industry
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Heritage
Tourism and designation of the sixteen
county region as a National Heritage Area
Bus Tours Press Release
Another Recent Hub & Spoke Press Release |