Project Highlight: 

Marketing Ecotourism in Rural Coastal Virginia

The Accomack Northampton (Eastern Shore), Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck are using their Virginia CZM grant funds to promote ecotourism in their regions – especially for trails.  The regions link existing trails (for paddling, oyster tasting and wildlife watching) with new trails, like the Eastern Shore Bayside Water Trail on a collaborative website - VirginiaWaterTrails.org - to make it easier for tourists to explore all of these attractions and “connect with world-class ecotourism destinations.”

Visitors help support the economies of rural coastal localities, and are encouraged to post photos at #RuralCoastalVA or #RCVA and sign up for a newsletter to be the first to know about upcoming events.

The project also included creation of an online trip planner for the Virginia Oyster Trail, which extends throughout rural coastal Virginia and allows visitors to select various oyster producers, restaurants and lodging establishments to map out their trip.