D.A.R.T. Background

In 2004, the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, Division of Economic Development (DED) teamed up with the Economic Development Administration (EDA) to initiate the Alaska Rural Visitor Industry Product Development Project, which became know as DART (Developing Alaska Rural Tourism). DART centered on economically distressed communities that want to develop tourism and have compelling attractions and experiences that visitors will enjoy. With proper training, planning, and marketing, these attractions and activities, or “products”, can be brought to market and local jobs created. Through the DART project we supported job development by helping startup businesses with visitor industry-specific business planning and skills training, we established public-private partnerships to address visitor industry infrastructure improvements, we developed regionally-based marketing strategies to attract visitors and visitor industry investment, and we helped communities tap into new funding sources that will help them achieve their long-term visitor industry development goals.

Events and Publications

The following is a list of events and publications that were part of the original DART project  between 2005 and 2007.