National Tour Association, American Recreation Coalition Podcasting Project Receives Public Funding
April 24, 2008
Contact:
Sara Morton
sara.morton@NTAstaff.com
800.682.8886
859.226.4418
April 24, 2008
National Tour Association, American Recreation Coalition Podcasting Project Receives Public Funding
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The national park podcasting project created by the National Tour Association and the American Recreation Coalition was selected by the Secretary of Interior and the Director of the National Park Service to receive funding under the Bush Administration’s new National Park Centennial Challenge program. The project is one of 110 selected from hundreds of projects and programs initially submitted in 2007 receive this special funding.
"NTA is pleased that this innovative project has been recognized. We now have the funding to create and maintain the first-ever podcast education program to benefit student and packaged tour visitors to Washington, D.C., areas," said NTA Chairman and CEO Bob Hoelscher, CTP. "As students and others travel from Washington, D.C., to Mount Vernon aboard buses – or even cars, they’ll be able learn of the area’s natural features and rich cultural heritage."
"We have long enjoyed working in partnership with NTA and the National Park Service," said ARC President Derrick Crandall. "And we are excited that these podcasts — more than a dozen ranging from three to 12 minutes in length – will highlight the features of one of the nation’s All American Roads under the National Scenic Byways Program, which NTA and ARC helped create in 1991. In fact, we’d like to partner with NTA on all of the designated byways – 126 of them stretching some 30,000 miles through parks and forests, along our coasts and in other special areas."
Last August, NTA announced that the podcasting project, a private/public partnership involving NTA, ARC, National Park Service and Eastern National, had been approved for inclusion in the National Park’s Centennial Challenge program. The challenge was designed to increase NPS visitor services and satisfaction by 2016, the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. The Centennial Initiative will match up to $100 million a year over 10 years of public money with $100 million a year for 10 years in private donations.
The NTA /ARC project will receive matching funds totaling $22,500 from NPS to help make multi-lingual audio-visual podcasts available for features along the George Washington Memorial Parkway and the C & O Canal National Historical Park. The podcasts will be available for free downloading on the Internet via iTunes, park Web sites and other locations.
The National Tour Association was established in 1951 as a unified voice to advocate a friendly regulatory environment in which the newly formed packaged travel industry could operate. Today, NTA’s government relations activities include monitoring security issues, as well as state and federal legislation and regulatory issues affecting the travel and tourism industry. NTA maintains full-time representation in Washington, D.C., to serve as the association’s voice on Capitol Hill to create a more positive travel experience for travelers around the globe. Additionally, NTA empowers its members to be advocates for the association on the local level, as well as to provide support for NTA’s positions on national priority issues through its Grassroots Action Network. For more information on NTA’s government relations activities, please visit www.NTAonline.com or call 800.682.8886.
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