This program highlighted recreational assets we didn’t realize we had. —FIT Participant “
Q & A Andrew Northrop Community Vitality and Sustainable Tourism Educator Michigan State University northro5@msu.edu
FIT’s Working! FIT’s objectives are to increase awareness of community assets among community leaders, increase knowledge of how to maximize those assets, increase community collaboration by sharing FIT assessment results, and encourage community members to take on leadership roles to implement community change. Our survey results* indicate that we’re meeting our goals.
How does FIT work? Our five-member assessment teams go into communities for approximately 24 hours. They’re invited by a community leadership team of pub - lic- and private-sector representatives, but they arrive unannounced and then spend a significant portion of their time incognito, visiting a wide range of amenities (such as restaurants and retail shops) and cultural, agricultural, and ecological assets (such as museums, wineries, and natural areas). They also generally explore the town and areas outside of what the host community might consider “theirs.” This helps communities see that assets can belong to more than one commu - nity or county, which improves their awareness and understanding of regionalism and the im - portance of collaboration. The FIT team uses a comprehensive assessment tool to take notes and capture their first impressions about what they experience as first-time visitors; then they write a report about the community’s strengths and op - portunities and present those findings at a forum hosted by the community. Why did you launch FIT? Early in my Extension career, I saw a need to help rural communities recover from the 2008 economic crash, which had decimated many of them. At the time, many communities were mostly dependent on manufacturing and didn’t see tourism as a viable, complementary solution to their economic struggles. I had years of expe - rience living and working abroad in sustainable tourism development, and I knew that Michigan
Strongly agreed or agreed that they envision using FIT data to advance their community
Strongly agreed or agreed that FIT will help
Strongly agreed or agreed that FIT increased awareness of community assets
Strongly agreed or agreed that FIT maximized their knowedge of how to maximize assets
strengthen community collaboration
*73 of 318 Michigan FIT participants in 2021 and 2022 completed the survey.
p Marine City, Michigan, established a business loop district based on FIT’s suggestions and funding from a local economic development organization.
FIT assessment as important—and then return next time because they had a positive, memorable experience—is success to me! I enjoy helping communities identify, preserve, and create unique experiences based on what they have. FIT does just that. It highlights exist - ing assets so that communities don’t feel pressure to install a water park or a roller coaster, per se, and instead, capitalize on what they already have. This is true sustainable tourism development, but it’s not always well understood at the community level. FIT offers a baseline that communities can start with and expand from.
Is FIT an original idea? Yes and no. FIT is essentially the product of how Extension teams build on what colleagues in other states have tried with or without success. I adapted it from a “First Impressions” model deployed in West Virginia through a multi-state grant from the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development in 2015. The grant helped lay the foundation of what I then modified, developed, and rebranded as MSU Extension’s FIT program to meet the needs of our communities. We are the only state and Exten - sion service that call this first-time visitor assess -
communities could benefit from different per - spectives and ideas from a wide range of visitors. I specifically wanted to help towns move beyond “placemaking,” a popular revitalization strategy at the time, and learn to recognize and embrace things they already had that could help them (re) grow their small-town visitor and tourism econo - mies. I am thrilled by the idea of helping small towns see themselves through an outsider’s eye as a way to help them be as unique as possible. The idea that a passer-through would stop in a community based on something we’ve identified through the
18 The NET Effect | Extension Foundation/NTAE
Extension Foundation/NTAE | The NET Effect 19
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