Outdoor NC Trail Town Stewardship Designation Program & Visitors Guide

JOIN THE MOVEMENT

Outdoor NC Trail Towns

Over the next few months, Gaston County Tourism Development will be working with Outdoor NC on the pilot of their trail town stewardship designation program. We aim to have our communities and stakeholders recognized for our diversity of trail experiences and to celebrate the stewardship efforts that champion accessible outdoors, responsible visitation, and sustainable tourism. Gaston County embraces a stewardship ethos, and we invite all guests, businesses, and residents to join us.

We joined the Outdoor NC movement to preserve and protect our cherished outdoor spaces for future generations. The objective is to actively promote stewardship and responsible outdoor recreation, ensuring our county's great natural spaces make it the destination we know and love forever.

Outdoor NC is a movement committed to promoting stewardship throughout North Carolina. It inspires everyone to not only experience the outdoors but also embrace and protect it. It provides various resources that educate outdoor adventurers on how to recreate responsibly, respectfully, and safely. As an Outdoor NC Alliance partner, we encourage everyone to join our collective movement to protect our beloved, shared outdoor spaces.

This program provides our team with practical destination stewardship concepts and principles, the tools to help our stakeholders activate destination stewardship activities, helps us develop communications around destination stewardship to share with visitors over multiple platforms and celebrates our Trail Towns in a specialized visitors guide.

A full outdoor and travel experience

We will select a variety of trails for the specialized visitor's guide, including 3-4 walking, hiking, and backpacking; 2-3 mountain biking; 1-2 experiential or heritage; 1 paddling; and one accessible. The effort promotes visitation to our towns and attractions, as each can be a unique, enjoyable pre/post-trail destination and a recommended place to start or finish trail experiences.

Through our participation, we can increase visitation, improve how tourism benefits our local community, reduce negative impacts on our cultural and natural assets, and enhance experiences for ALL visitors.

North Carolina is the Great Trail State, and Gaston County aims to build upon the momentum we enjoyed during the 2023 Year of the Trail. Let's use this opportunity to become known as a Great Trail County!