Travel Tips

More Welcoming Ideas

Want to use some of your entrepreneurial energy to put your hometown on the map? Here are a few ways to do just that:

Consider becoming part of the Friendship Force, an organization founded in 1977 to create an environment where personal friendships are established through homestays. The Friendship Force is active in more than 50 countries and lists Jimmy Carter as a supporter. They also organize group travel to numerous spots around the world. You can get more details by calling them at 1-800-554-6715 or taking a look at their web site: www.friendshipforce.org.

You don't have to jump on an airplane in order to be a travel writer. What about writing about your own part of the world and submitting it to a publication? Here's a nice bonus: doing research on your area might lead you to develop a new appreciation for the place you call home.

If you live in a city that is large enough to have a Visitor and Convention Bureau, contact them and see if they publish a listing of groups planning to come to your city. Anyone with a personal service business might get some new ideas for marketing to conventioneers or those coming for a short stay. Here in Minneapolis, for example, we have a catering company that specializes in feeding visiting musicians and rock bands. Of course, if you market a product, you would want to consider exhibiting at appropriate conventions and trade shows.

Join forces with several other self-bossers and plan an event that will bring people into your town. Festivals, farmers' markets, conferences and art weekends are just a few possibilities that can help put your town on the map and create a profit at the same time for enterprising types.

There's more where this came from.
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Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.

~ Demosthenes

Copyright © 2003-2005, Barbara J. Winter. All rights reserved.