Bookstore tourism

Bookstore tourism

Bookstore tourism is a type of cultural tourism that promotes independent bookstores as a group travel destination. It started as a grassroots effort to support locally owned and operated bookshops, many of which have struggled to compete with large bookstore chains and online retailers.

The project was initiated in 2003 by Larry Portzline, a writer and college instructor in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania who led "bookstore road trips" to other cities and recognized its potential as a group travel niche and marketing tool. He promoted the concept with a how-to book and a web site, and groups around the U.S. soon began offering similar excursions, usually via a chartered bus, and often incorporating book signings, author home tours, and historical sites. In 2005-06, the [http://www.scbabooks.org/ Southern California Booksellers Association] and [http://www.nciba.com/ Northern California Independent Booksellers Association] embraced bookstore tourism, offering trips to independent bookstores in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.

The Bookstore Tourism movement encourages schools, libraries, reading groups, and organizations of all sizes to create day-trips and literary outings to cities and towns with a concentration of independent bookstores. It also encourages local booksellers to attract bibliophiles to their communities by employing bookstore tourism as an economic development tool. Others benefiting include local retailers, restaurants, bus companies, and travel professionals.

The effort also provides organizations with an outreach opportunity to support reading and literacy.

Portzline has traveled across the country to promote the concept. In Fall 2006 he launched the [http://www.BookstoreTourism.com National Council on Bookstore Tourism] (NCBT), a nonprofit organization and trade association that will partner with booksellers, libraries, educators, literary festivals, the travel industry and economic development agencies at the national, state and local levels. In 2006 he created a promotional video featuring group "bookstore road trips" in New York City's Greenwich Village and in Los Angeles area "beach towns" and posted it on the NCBT website.

Regrettably, by December 2007, Portzline had given up his idea of visiting more than 200 bookstores in all 50 states in 2008 and had also taken down his bookstore tourism website; both actions were due to a lack of funding.

ee also

*Independent bookstore

External links

* [http://www.BookstoreTourism.com BookstoreTourism.com]
* [http://www.LitMinds.org/blog LitMinds.org blog includes accounts of tours taken by reading enthusiasts]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Tourism — Tourist redirects here. For other uses, see Tourist (disambiguation). Summer Visitors by Maurice Prendergast (1897) Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defi …   Wikipedia

  • Tourism in Portland, Oregon — Portland, Oregon, USA has a variety of tourist attractions.ites of interest * Contemporary Crafts Museum and Gallery [http://www.contemporarycrafts.org/] * Evergreen Aviation Museum * Fort Vancouver * Oregon Historical Society Museum * Oregon… …   Wikipedia

  • Independent bookstore — An Independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. [ [http://www.bookweb.org/about American Booksellers Association] ] Literary and countercultural historyAuthor events at independent bookstores sometimes take the role… …   Wikipedia

  • Medical tourism — (also called medical travel, health tourism or global healthcare) is a term initially coined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly growing practice of travelling across international borders to obtain health care. It also… …   Wikipedia

  • Cultural tourism — Tourists taking pictures at the khmer Pre Rup temple ruins, an example of cultural tourism. Cultural tourism (or culture tourism) is the subset of tourism concerned with a country or region s culture, specifically the lifestyle of the people in… …   Wikipedia

  • Heritage tourism — Cultural heritage tourism (or just heritage tourism or diaspora tourism) is a branch of tourism oriented towards the cultural heritage of the location where tourism is occurring. The National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States… …   Wikipedia

  • Sustainable tourism — Part of a series on Green economics Concepts …   Wikipedia

  • Nautical tourism — Cruisers can see traditional life in remote areas of the world; here, a Kuna local paddles a dugout canoe in the San Blas Islands. Nautical tourism is an increasingly popular way to combine love of sailing and boating with vacation and holiday… …   Wikipedia

  • Accessible tourism — is the ongoing endeavour to ensure tourist destinations, products and services are accessible to all people, regardless of their physical limitations, disabilities or age. It encompasses publicly and privately owned tourist locations. The term… …   Wikipedia

  • Culinary tourism — or food tourism is experiencing the food of the country, region or area, and is now considered a vital component of the tourism experience.[1] Dining out is common among tourists and food is believed to rank alongside climate, accommodation, and… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”