NORTH KITSAP — Tourism doesn’t have to be so messy, say some Kitsap officials.
With all the future planning going on in North Kitsap’s towns, it’s time to work holistically for the future of tourism, said Jean Boyle, director of tourism develoment for Kitsap Peninsula Visitor and Convention Bureau.
“All our towns are so unique and wonderful but all together they are just amazing and can draw people to the area,” Boyle said, adding Kitsap is a greatly untapped travel destination for those who want to get a taste of varied atmospheres and histories without traveling along Norway’s fjords, the Amazon’s forests, or the Swiss’ mountains and back.
With all the various ongoing trail plans, such as land development company Olympic Property Group’s String of Pearls, which connects towns in North Kitsap with nature trails, it’s an ideal time to attract visitors to the peninsula, she said.
“Kitsap, I think, is just sort of ripe for making some really good decisions of what we want to be,” Boyle said. “We’re not overgrown yet and still have some time to get people together and working on the same page.”
Baltimore-based Andy Dumaine, founder of shrinkingfootprint (www.shrinkingfootprint.com), specializes in ways to maximize benefits of tourism — economically, socially and environmentally, according to a press release from the Kitsap Visitors Bureau.
Dumaine is speaking at the bureau’s upcoming seminar at Kiana Lodge Nov 15 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Since 1994, Dumaine’s worked with the big names in the travel and tourism industry such as National Geographic, The Washington Post, Puerto Rico and International Hotels. And he’s done it all in a culturally favorable and environmentally friendly way, working with organizations like the Earth Conservation Corps, Global Futures Project, the White House Commission on Volunteerism and Doctors Without Borders.
The press release states “shrinkingfootprint works with clients to develop alternative tourism strategies that enhance visitor engagement while reducing pressure on people and place.”
Boyle said anyone involved in the local tourism industry, government officials and those influential in making decisions regarding North Kitsap should be thinking about the future implications of travel on the peninsula.
“His message is universal,” Boyle said. “It’s good to hear it and work on it now before we (Kitsap) get to big. It’s hard to go backwards.”
The benefits of sustainable tourism on peninsula potentially can work symbiotically with surrounding destinations in other counties as well, like day hikes in the Olympic or Cascade mountain ranges.
“What we have is not only Kitsap but what we have surrounding us,” she said. “We can get to so much within a day’s drive.”
