White Mountain Hotel gives $15,000 to rec path

By: The Conway Daily Sun

The White Mountain Hotel and Resort has donated $15,000 to support the North Conway alternative transportation and recreation path project.

The proposed North Conway rec path project will cost $2.3 million to complete.

​The MWV Trails Association Capital Campaign Committee has been hard at work raising money through grants and individual donors and has reached 80 percent of the project goal.

The committee said it is grateful for the support received from The White Mountain Hotel and Resort.

Hotel owner Gary Sullivan "is one of our enduring leaders in the Hotel industry here in the Mount Washington Valley," said Ted Wroblewski, co-chair of the MWVTA Capital Campaign Committee.

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"Gary offers us, through his generosity, a tremendous example of kindness that we hope will inspire others,” Wroblewski said.

According to the committee, there are many ways that trails and greenways affect the local economies including: tourism, community improvement, property value, jobs and general consumer spending.

Based on the Clarion-Little Toby Trail 2015 User Survey and Economic Impact Analysis put out by the Rails-To-Trails Conservancy, lodging was one of three factors examined for economic analysis. In the report it is states that, “The impact of overnight stays was significant, which is typical of a trail located in a rural area and not close to large metropolitan centers. More than a third of the survey respondents (34.6 percent) indicated that they stayed overnight in conjunction with their trail visit.”

American Trails, a non-profit organization based in Redding, Calif., has also provided information on the economic benefits of trails to a community and explains that trail tourism is one way of creating opportunities for people to vacation in the U.S.
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"Rather than spending money in Las Vegas, Disney World or on cruise ships, they are traveling to recreational areas across the country," American Trails said in a report on economic benefits of trails and greenways.

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