Embracing the Dark Side: The Market for Dark Skies Tourism

Dark sky tourism is a rapidly growing but little understood Appalachian tourism segment. This presentation will focus on the market for dark skies destinations, the typical dark skies visitor, and emerging or potential markets for dark skies sites. It will also introduce strategies for developing these sites and for helping protect night-sky assets. Much of the market research will be culled from recent surveys of night sky stakeholders across the ARC region. These surveys were conducted as part of economic impact and market research related to the development of Calhoun County Park in Central West Virginia. The survey data provides demographic and economic information related to amateur astronomers and other night sky tourists. The research shows that while amateur astronomers are a niche market, they could prove to be a valuable source of revenue for many regional communities. While amateur astronomers remain the core market for these destination, recent research suggests demand for night sky travel among other groups. These destinations appear to have a number of important secondary markets, including programming related to the arts, humanities, faith communities, and environmental sciences. This presentation will intorduce these secondary markets and discuss their potential imact. Lastly, the presentation will introduce strategies to help communities develop and protect their dark sky resources. These include building local support, creating jurisdictional protections, and adopting low-impact ligating technologies