Executive Summary
This tourism plan will examine ways to help create and improve sustainable tourism in Homestead, Pennsylvania. This will be done through careful analysis of established theories in the field of tourism planning through a literature review. Then with the aid of primary research, including visual and written field journals, provide a comprehensive plan to achieve the afore mentioned goal. This will be supplemented by a Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis of the site, in addition to a market and product profile.
Introduction
Homestead, Pa was formerly a part of a vast steel industry for approximately 100 years. The Homestead Works, the steel manufacturing plant located in Homestead, Pa, provided the U.S. and the world with a vast amount of steel. After the industry began to fade in the 1960's and even more so when the plant finally shut down in the 1980's, Homestead faced a population decline.
Homestead
Graham Homestead, Hull, IA 7-26-13
English: Bost Building, Homestead, PA, USA, headqu...There is no big industry in Homestead to sustain its inhabitants or to encourage others to visit.
The Rivers of Steel organization (ROS) contacted Professor Susan Ryan of California University of Pennsylvania about developing a tourism plan for their region of Homestead, Pennsylvania. The California University undergraduate class of Comprehensive Travel Planning, Geo 358, has taken the task of spending a semester of research to create this plan. The end result will be individual students' 30 page comprehensive plan for sustainable tourism in Homestead for the ROS organization.
Thesis Statement
With this in mind, the main research question of this Tourism Plan is, How can sustainable tourism be Developed in Homestead, Pennsylvania? In considering this research question, a sub-set of questions arises. Those being: How do we best use the Rivers of Steel-National Heritage Area to attract tourists to the Homestead area? and, What socio-economic factors are involved...