Best Practices: Rural Communities — The Global Climbing Initiative

“As climbing grows in popularity, rural economies in the vicinity of climbing destinations (rural gateway communities) are presented with unique challenges: managing an unanticipated increase in visitation within the community. Some of these rural communities may not want to welcome outsiders into their regions, and others struggle with determining how to adapt to the changing landscape. For towns open to the adjustment, this challenge is also a potentially overlooked opportunity: how do small towns and rural areas nurture and prioritize their local communities, creating a place where people want to live – not just pass through?”

This chapter of GCI’s Best Practices Project provides important recommendations in response to the above question. The first section explores the benefits of attracting climbing residents from a community orientation; the second section identifies actions individual actors can take to strengthen the relationship between climbers, locals, governments, businesses, and the tourism industry. Author Tim Golden is the co-founder and former board member of the Bishop Area Climbers' Coalition (BACC), and led the Economic Impact of Climbing study for the Bishop Area in partnership with Eastern Kentucky University.