III. OVERVIEW AND PROCESS
First Impressions Program

Corridor Program Overview and Process

Program Overview:

The First Impressions Program – Tourism Corridor/byway - is designed to give you insight into the success of your tourism efforts by providinga first time visitor’s impression of a selected corridor or byway in your community. These insights, provided to you in the form of a written report and presentation, can help to evaluate ongoing tourism efforts to build on your existing assets and correct those shortcomings that may limit your corridor’s overall impact.

Your corridor will be matched with another, similar corridor that is also interested in obtaining information on the effectiveness of their tourism efforts. Each of you will identify a team of volunteers who will visit the other community anonymously and complete a survey of their impressions of your corridor. The results of their visit will be provided to you in both written and presentation formats.

The information provided to you through the First Impressions process will help to:

►Evaluate the successes of your tourism efforts by gaining insight into the effectiveness of your corridor

►Identify ways to improve and strengthen your corridor’s image to tourists

►Focus your corridor improvement efforts

►Assess the ease with which tourists can take advantage of visiting your corridor

Steps in the First Impressions Process:

  1. Local Coordinator’s Responsibilities

Before beginning the program, choose a sponsoring organization or agency and an individual who can manage the process, train the team, accompany then on a visit, and prepare and deliver the final report. Specific steps are as follows:

  1. Form a visitation team of 5 – 6 community volunteers. Try for diversity in this team if possible; male/female, professional/lay person, political leader/community resident, older/younger. Choose persons who, because of their recognition and respect in the community, may be able to encourage the taking of survey results to the next step to actual development and implementation of strategies to improve the corridor.
  1. Arrange for visitor trainingto let volunteers know what is expected of them and to acquaint them with the surveyand overall program (see Volunteer Training Instructions). Secure financial support to cover potential costs incurred in visiting the other community (see Financial Guidelines). Sometimes the distance from one community to another will require this to be a two-day program, so insure that the visitation team members understand this time commitment.
  1. If it is a two-day program, allow someone from the visitation team to make the needed arrangements for accommodations. Since web sites are often a tourist’s first source of information, make sure to visit the local web site and evaluate it for effectiveness and information. The volunteer’s experiences encountered in doing this will become part of the survey and report.
  1. Make sure that at least one visitation team member brings a digital camera and takes pictures during their visit of important features and points they want to emphasize. Digital photos are best because they can be inserted easily into a Power Point final presentation of your visit.
  1. Visit the corridor. Have each visitation team member individually fill out a survey as they are conducting the visit.
  1. Complete a Return Trip Questionnaire (see Return Trip Questionnaire) on the way home.
  1. Compile the individual surveys in report form. Send this report electronically as a Word Document to the First Impression Ohio State University ExtensionTeam (OSU Extension Team)Coordinator. Design a presentation to share your results with the other community including photos as appropriate. Use the Final Report and Presentation Instructions for preparation of the report and presentation.
  1. Present the survey results and your First Impressions Presentation to the other community and arrange for their presentation to you (see Report and Presentation Instructions). One of the volunteer visitors could be chosen to attend the report presentation with the coordinator. Their role will be to assist the coordinator with the presentation and verify the team’s impressions.
  1. Evaluate the effectiveness of the First Impressions Program and keep track of the follow-up that is generated.
  1. OSU Team responsibilities:
  1. Provide your community with promotional materials and information listing the benefits and outlining the process of the First Impressions Program.
  1. Provide a list of other interested communities and provide guidance in pairing your community with another suitable programparticipant. Maintain schedule between communities so that final reports are available to each around the same time.
  1. Provide the surveys and instructions for the visitation team. Conduct the volunteer visitor training and instruct the coordinator on preparing the team for the visit.
  1. Once the survey results are completed and sent electronically to the OSU Extension Team Coordinator, they will be put into a final draft for review and comment by the OSU Extension Team. The OSU Extension Team will identify themes/issues that they see emerging from the survey and suggest OSU Extension and other programs that may help the community in addressing the issues that have arisen from the visit. These insights and suggestions will be offered as a written addendum to the report. Both the draft survey and the addendum will be returned to the local coordinator for final review and approval.
  1. Provide assistance to the coordinator in the preparation of a presentation to the paired community. Suggestions regarding the presentation approach and points to cover will be provided to the local coordinator (see Report and Presentation Instructions).
  1. In some cases a community will seek further assistance in the use of the First Impressions Program results. They may want to engage in visioning and/or strategic planning. OSU Extension and the Teamcan provide assistance in this area, either directly or by referral to other Extension resources.
  1. Conduct a follow-up survey of the sponsoring organization and local coordinator to evaluate the effectiveness and long-term impact of the First Impressions Program in your community.

Ohio State University Extension First Impressions TeamMembers:

Myra Moss, Team Coordinator and Extension Educator

OSU Extension, Heart of Ohio

Phone: 740.607.5177 or email:

Mike Lloyd, Extension Educator

OSU Extension, Noble County

Phone: 740.732.5681 or email:

Cindy Bond, Extension Educator

OSU Extension, Guernsey County

740.432.9300 or email:

Revised 9/25/2012