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WINNER:
September, 2008
Billington wins award.
Evening
Times article |
Woonsocket Call |
Valley Breeze |
More
Tourism Chief Nominated for World Travel Award
Dr. Robert Billington, President of the Blackstone Valley
Tourism Council has been nominated as a finalist for the World Travel
Awards - North American Travel Personality of the Year. Billington was
chosen as one of three finalists for his achievements in the travel and
tourism industry. He is competing for the award with two other finalists
who are: Jay Rasulo, Chairman of Walt Disney Parks & Resorts; and Cheryl
Hudak, President of the 20,000 member American Society of Travel
Agencies (ASTA). More
May 6, 2008
Speaker says Cedar Rapids riverfront should
focus on local interests By Rick Smith The Gazette
CEDAR RAPIDS — Local elected officials got some coaching Monday about
their ambitious hopes for the Cedar River, a RiverWalk and riverfront
development along it. Lesson one: Make the river and the area around it
into a special place for those who live in Cedar Rapids and Linn County
first, and worry about turning it into a destination spot for tourists
later, Robert Billington, president of the Blackstone Valley Tourism
Council, Pawtucket, R.I., told a joint meeting on Monday of the Cedar
Rapids City Council and the Linn County Board of Supervisors.
More
May 5, 2008
Tourism Cares Awards $10,000 Grant to Blackstone Valley
Tourism Cares, a non-profit group dedicated to promoting responsible
tourism within the tourism industry, awarded $10,000 to the Blackstone
Valley Tourism Council's Sustainable Tourism Planning and Development
Laboratory to help fund its second civic tourism conference.
More
April 22 - 29, 2008
Council wins Tourism for Tomorrow
Destination Award
Think 'tourism destination' and the image that
comes to mind is not likely to be a place known for its polluted
rivers, abandoned businesses, high unemployment and
disenfranchised local communities. Yet, that is exactly what the
Blackstone River Valley was when local community members
launched the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council (BVTC) in 1985.
Their goal was to revitalize the nine communities along the
Blackstone River Valley in Rhode Island that formed the
birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution and then
ultimately became a victim of it when the Blackstone became the
first polluted river in the Western Hemisphere and its
industrial economy collapsed. Working with a wide range of
multi-stakeholders, BVTC has shown that tourism can play a key
role in helping to revitalize a downtrodden economy and bring
back a river once declared "dead" to the benefit of local
people, business, and nature. Through a destination stewardship
approach to tourism development, including the preservation of
the area's natural, cultural and historical heritage, BVTC has
succeeded in uniting a community and awakening it to its new
economic potential. With innovative projects like the
Sustainable Tourism Development and Planning Laboratory, the
Council continues to grow and enhance its many offerings, while
sharing the lessons it has learned with other tourism
destinations.
More |
Providence Business News Story |
Travel Mole Interview with Bob Billington |
View
videos (click on items in left column) |
Tourism for Tomorrow Website
01/25/2008
(Providence Journal)
New Concept of
Tourism Presented by Peter Lord - Consider two extremes of
tourism: In Tombstone, Ariz., 1,100 residents host some 600,000 visitors
a year who stay an average of two hours and spend just $8 each.
More
National Geographic
Billington featured as part of National
Geographic Geotourism Challenge Bob Billington has
lived most of his life in the Blackstone River Valley of Rhode Island,
where his family owned a manufacturing business on the banks of the
Blackstone River. In the 1980s, facing a recession and the need to save
the family business, Billington organized 14 other manufacturers in the
Blackstone Valley to cooperate and sell their products directly to the
public.
Billington Profile |
Challenge Info
10/17/2007 (Forbes)
Rhode Island No. 8 in Greenest States
More
10/22/2007 (Providence Business News)
Creating ‘places,’ not tourist traps
By William Hamilton
As a tourism industry leader, Robert Billington should be concerned
about attracting visitors and their dollars to his region in northern
Rhode Island. But right now, he’s not worried about it too
More
10/25/2007
Place-Making: Sustainable Tourism
Development Forum
Programs, Techniques and Practices for Your Organization The
Blackstone Valley Tourism Council's Sustainable Tourism Planning and
Development Laboratory will be hosting this year's conference:
Place-Making - Sustainable Tourism Development Forum Programs,
Techniques and Practices for Your Organization More
10/26/2007 (Providence Journal)
Place-making’ forum focuses on local flavor - Policymakers,
city planners and tourism officials from Rhode Island and neighboring
Connecticut and Massachusetts gathered downtown yesterday for a forum on
“place-making” sponsored by the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council.
More
Geotourism
Initiative Puts the Focus on Sustainable Tourism -
It was only fitting that Governor Carcieri signed the state's
Geotourism Charter May 16, right in the middle of 2007 National Tourism
Week
More
July 4, 2007 (ehotelier.com)
Int'l Think Tank on Sustainable Tourism hosted
by School of Hotel & Restaurant Management - This summer, at
NAU's School of Hotel & Restaurant Management, three dozen tourism
scholars and practitioners assembled to explore the dynamics of
sustainability and tourism and develop a cutting edge research agenda.
The BEST Education Network's (BEST EN) seventh annual Think Tank
convened from June 21-24.
More
UNWTO.ULYSSES Conference and Prize Ceremony
Blackstone Valley Tourism Council - USA Honored "In recognition of their
pioneer activities in using tourism as a tool for development and for
their contribution to a positive change with regards to community values
in Rhode Island over the past 20 years". (Innovation in Tourism
Destination Management)
More
Spring 2007 (Cultural
Tourism Heritage News)
Blackstone River Valley Shares Success with
Others: Twenty-two years ago, the Blackstone Valley in
Massachusetts and Rhode Island suffered from poverty, pollution and
neglect and would hardly have been considered a tourism destination.
Thanks to the dedicated efforts of talented local visionaries, today
this region is one of the nation’s most successful National Heritage
Areas showcasing America’s first industrial landscape. Building on more
than two decades of hard-earned experience, the Blackstone Valley
Tourism Council has recently developed a 5-day Sustainable Tourism
Development Laboratory to help other communities design thoughtful
tourism planning and development strategies.
More
05/21/2007 (Providence Business News)
Geotourism’ pledge puts R.I. people,
heritage first by Marion Davis, PBN Managing Editor -
Jonathan Tourtellot drove home the meaning of “geotourism” with a
slideshow. Accompanied by a voiceover of a woman saying how much she’d
loved a recent trip to Rhode Island, the pictures showed
More
05/07/2007 (Providence Business News)
Event highlights benefits of ‘green’
tourism efforts by David Ortiz - A CRANE drops the
Blackstone Valley Explorer in the water in Central Falls. The boat
is used for tours highlighting the region's history and natural
beauty. More
4/27/2007 (Providence Journal)
Symposium takes tourism for a turn toward
green - How can the tourism industry be environmentally
friendly when it promotes destinations reachable only by
greenhouse-gas emitting cars and airplanes?
More
04/25/2007 (Evening Times)
Expert panelists to tackle 'green' tourism
- Al Gore and friends may have won the Oscar, but when it
comes to leadership in the "green" tourism movement, you don't have to
look farther than your back yard and the decades of dedicated efforts by
the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council.
More
Could the Blackstone River Once Again Fuel the Valley's Economy?
-- Sustainable Tourism Summit Examines Improving the Blackstone
Valley Regional Economy While Preserving the Area's Natural and Historic
Attractions
Summit Suggests Rhode Island Could Create a National Economic
Model by Tapping its Natural, Historic and Cultural Resources
"The Blackstone Valley Tourism Council brought in leading thinkers on
tourism development for the conference and spent the day brainstorming
ways to find long-term success in improving the regional economy while
preserving the area's natural and historic attractions. Bob Billington,
Council Executive Director, explained the goal was to get the
participants thinking about "how do we develop tourism in the Blackstone
Valley and make it grow wisely, how do we develop it in a way residents
will appreciate and how do we develop it in ways that will make business
want to locate here." To Billington, creating sustainable tourism in the
area means preserving the natural and historic features of the
Blackstone Valley so those resources will continue to be enjoyed by the
people who live here for generations to come. 'Tourism should be about
the quality of life in a livable community,' he said."
Read entire Woonsocket Call article
View summit photos
Sustainable Tourism Summit Examines Improving the Blackstone
Valley Regional Economy While Preserving the Area's Natural and Historic
Attractions
Read Woonsocket Call article
| View summit information and photos
UNWTO Ulysses Prizes to Innovation in Tourism will be granted to
Professor David Airey (UK), Blackstone Valley Tourism Council (USA) and
Accor (Sofitel, Novotel…)
More | Acceptance Speech
BEST Education Network Think Tank VI: Corporate Social Responsibility
for Sustainable Tourism - University of Girona, Spain, 2006 Press
Releases More |
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