Paul
T. Richard
Communication
Development Services
Research
In the past my research has taken me into the areas of demographic analysis of spending patterns in the Southwest where tourism is a large part of the rural economy. Until our work was conducted, few methods had been available to track the actual percentage of tourism impacts in terms of dollars and spending behaviors of visitors to the region and to specific sites of interest. Historical travel, family travel, cultural travel and nature travel are huge attractions in the Southwest. Before no one really knew the exact economic and social effects of those trends.
Subject areas where I have spent years studying include community forestry in rural counties of the Southwest, collaborative decisionmaking, socio-economic trends in rural small towns, tourism, community development, wilderness recreation, narrative inquiry (a research method), and Chinese internal martial arts history and philosophies. As you can see my interests are varied, which I believe gives me an advantage these days when knowing a little about a lot is beneficial. It makes you adaptable to changing conditions, thus more effective and efficient.
Contact me with your questions and interests. I really like to talk about what I do, but I am even happier to talk about what you're thinking about.
Projects
Researcher-Writer-Editor & Co-planner: Case study of experimental, collaborative forest restoration prototypes; Dialogues on community-national forest planning and policy; Tourism capacity assessment in rural towns and natural attractions; Supporting publications on community based public land use and planning.
Key Researcher:
Evaluation and assessment of community-based forest restoration projects
in four states, 2001-04. Website development and maintenance. Cross-boundary
audience learning workshops among southwest Colorado residents and public-land
managers.