About partners for livable

5 | HOw TO CREATE A LOCAL CULTURAL 
HERITAGE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT PLAN: 
 
PARTNERS’ ExPERIENCE IN wASHINGTON, DC
One community that has successfully promoted its rich and diverse cultural heritage around a tourism 
agenda is Washington, DC. Though clearly a top spot for visitors from across the country and around the 
world, Washington has managed to draw an increasing number of tourists away from the Smithsonian and 
National Mall, and into the off-beat neighborhoods that pulse with local culture and ethnic history.
Even in DC, where there are no shortage of tourists, creating a cultural heritage tourism agenda is not 
easy, and requires a clear vision, and the support of civic and community stakeholders. Yet, the path to 
achieving such a strategy is not easy. In Washington, Partners for Livable Communities was instrumental 
in guiding Cultural Tourism DC forward during a pivotal time in its growth from a small organization to 
one with a significant city-wide impact.
Partners believes that the planning process that shined in Washington, DC is a model for cultural and 
tourism agencies around the country. This chapter profiles Cultural Tourism DC and the larger planning 
process that helped contribute to one of the nation’s most vibrant community tourism projects.
THE ORIGINS OF “CULTURAL TOURISM DC”
Washington, DC is a city with no shortage of visitors. More than 15 million people visit each year, 
making tourism the city’s number one private industry. However, in 1996, a group of local cultural 
organizations came together to try to create a strategy to capture some of the visitors who were almost 
exclusively visiting the big museums and sites on the National Mall. At that time, there was almost no 
literature highlighting local attractions, and tourist maps hardly showed neighborhoods outside of the city 
center. A public-supported visitor’s center did not exist, and the federal museums and sites on the National 
Mall only publicized other federal attractions. As a result, the city of Washington was missing out on tax 
revenues, local restaurants and stores were missing out on visitors, and key historical points of interest 
and attractions were being left unmarked, unprotected and forgotten.
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Beginning as a grass-roots initiative led by community and cultural organizations, Cultural Tourism DC 
launched in 1996, known then as the DC Heritage Tourism Coalition. The impetus for the organization 
grew out of the collaboration of the Humanities Council of Washington, DC and the Historical Society 
of Washington, DC. Quickly, more community organizations signed on, seeing the benefits of a cultural 
heritage tourism group that could jointly market local museums and attractions which had been ignored 
by the tourism establishment.
Early on, the coalition was wise to link their new organization to community economic development. Its 
stated mission was dedicated to “strengthening the image and the economy of the District of Columbia 
by engaging visitors in the diverse heritage of the city beyond the monuments.” In other words, the 
organization realized that to attract funding and support, it needed to demonstrate how cultural heritage 
tourism could be instrumental in improving the economies of city neighborhoods and local businesses. 
This way, they would have a stake in the success of the organization.

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Cultural Heritage Tourism
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One of the first projects launched by 
the organization was a small number 
of bus tours to DC neighborhoods, 
sponsored by the DC Chamber of 
Commerce. The tours raised publicity 
for the organization and helped bring 
more partners on board. At the same 
time, the group undertook a two-year 
project to extensively catalogue the 
lesser-known historical and cultural 
sites that could draw visitors to DC 
away from the National Mall and 
into local communities. This list of 
attractions helped to persuade even 
the local holdouts that Washington 
has a lot more to offer its millions of 
visitors, and that creating an effective 
cultural heritage tourism strategy 
would benefit the entire city.
Over the next few years, the organization engaged a number of funding partners including the DC Office 
of Economic Development, the Hotel Association of Washington, the DC Department of Housing and 
Urban Development, the Washington, DC Convention and Tourism Corporation, as well as private 
philanthropic organizations.
In 2000, the organization released its first major promotional materials under the theme, “Washington, 
Beyond the Monuments”. The campaign, drawn from surveys conducted to determine visitors’ 
main interests, featured nine neighborhoods and two themes: historic houses and parks and gardens. 
Promotional literature for each of the neighborhoods and themes were produced, and made available at 
existing and new visitor information booths, as well as at metro stations and museums and destinations 
across the city. A new Website was created, www.culturaltourismdc.org, showcasing DC’s cultural 
attractions and promoting upcoming events.
As the success of Cultural Tourism DC grew, its annual budget increased from less than $100,000 in 1999 
to more than $2 million. Most significantly, the tourism “products” offered and coordinated by Cultural 
Tourism DC expanded tremendously. 
One of its centerpiece projects has been a series of neighborhood heritage trails, guided by large signs 
and free booklets available from local merchants and cultural organizations. There are now more than 14 
heritage trails around Washington that explore the history and heritage of a diversity of neighborhoods. As