The Camden County History Alliance has been selected for a grant to begin work on the Camden County Heritage Tourism Plan.
The Camden County History Alliance announced recently that it was selected by the New Jersey Historic Trust for a state grant from the Discover New Jersey History License Plate Fund for Heritage Tourism to begin work on the Camden County Heritage Tourism Plan.
The Camden County History Alliance was formed in February 2016 as a partnership of over 40 Camden County historic sites, historical societies and preservation and support organizations. The History Alliance’s purpose is to identify resources, increase the number of visitors and institute projects that promote Camden County heritage. The Camden County Historical Society administers the programs and initiatives of the History Alliance, including the twice annual “Camden County Heritage” magazine, a new historic signage program and the upcoming Heritage Tourism Plan.
The $5,000 grant project to the History Alliance through the Historical Society is the first phase of a three-phase Heritage Tourism Plan. The state-grant-funded project includes an online survey of all Camden County History Alliance partners, a written executive summary and final report of survey results and the identification of three to five thematic interpretive trails to link together the organizations so they can be jointly marketed as heritage tourism attractions. The survey results will be useful for future advocacy, education programming and planning purposes. In later phases of the Heritage Tourism Plan, the History Alliance will create a series of heritage trails for joint marketing purposes to encourage more people to visit Camden County History Alliance partner sites.
The grant project will take three months and will begin in August. The research is being conducted by Donna Ann Harris of Heritage Consulting Inc., a Philadelphia-based WBE consulting firm specializing in historic preservation and heritage tourism. This project has been accomplished with financial assistance from the New Jersey Historic Trust through the Discover NJ History License Plate Heritage Tourism Grant Program.
