T.R.A.C.E website: Tourism Research and Community Empowerment

As an outlet for the community tools developed during the course of our research, a new website www.trace.org.nz will be a resource for communities, public and private sector to access a range of tools for research.

T.r.a.c.e. stands for Tourism Research and Community Empowerment: this is a toolkit resource for individuals, communities, small businesses, and local governments to assist in the planning and management of tourism related activities.

The website presents tools and concepts that may be applied to many situations with the aim of empowering people to determine and direct the future of their communities.

The site is segmented into five categories: Heritage, Small Firms, Quality of Life, Sport, Policy & Planning. Within each of these areas you will find ‘tools’ which you can use for all sorts of research and planning, and also a ‘showcase’ of areas where these tools have been applied. The aim is to empower people to be able to better understand, plan and manage tourism related activities without the cost of getting professionals in.

The T.R.A.C.E. website is part of an ongoing project; some resources are currently available on the site while others are still in progress.