Join the Almost Heaven Maple Trails Story
2026-2027
Season
SUMMARY
Elevate Mountain State Maple Days as a flagship winter agritourism experience.
Coordinate shared storytelling across Pendleton, Pocahontas, Grant, and Randolph CVBs.
Align messaging with Almost Heaven and Tourism Works: Shape Our Future priorities.
Use Maple Days as a live learning lab for hospitality, culinary, and tourism students.
Secure earned and shared media via WV Tourism’s statewide platforms.
Feature maple producers, heritage foodways, and workforce pathways in tourism and culinary fields.
Track visitation, student engagement, and business impacts to inform future campaigns.
Situation now: Mountain State Maple Days is a multi-county agritourism event with strong grassroots energy. At the same time, Tourism Works: Shape Our Future is expanding hospitality and tourism curriculum and career pathways in all 55 counties, connecting students to real-world tourism careers, including culinary and hospitality tracks.
Likely result with partnership: By linking Maple Days to Shape Our Future, the campaign can simultaneously grow winter visitation and function as a practical classroom: students get hands-on experience in hospitality, culinary tourism, and destination marketing, while rural businesses gain visibility, support, and future workforce connections.
Risk Analysis (three-way partners + education)
County CVBs & Producers Risk: Extra coordination for students during busy Maple Days may strain capacity.
Mitigation: Define small, realistic student roles; assign one on-site “point person” per host site; stagger student visits.
WV Department of Tourism / Shape Our Future Risk: Program demands across 55 counties may limit staff bandwidth. Mitigation: Start with 1–2 pilot schools per county cluster; build a repeatable model.
Schools / Culinary & Tourism Programs Risk: Weather, transportation, or scheduling conflicts with the academic calendar.
Mitigation: Offer a mix of on-site and virtual options (virtual sugarhouse tours, online marketing projects, recipe development using WV maple in school kitchens).
ROLE OF THE WV DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM WITH THE COMMUNITY
Lead statewide amplifier of Maple Days and regional maple trails under the Almost Heaven brand.
Integrate Maple Days into Tourism Works: Shape Our Future storytelling as a tangible example of tourism and culinary career paths.
Coordinate with WV Department of Education and community/technical colleges so tourism, hospitality, and culinary programs can plug into Maple Days as internship, job-shadow, or project sites.
Provide brand guidance and content standards; support curriculum-aligned projects (e.g., tourism marketing assignments, culinary maple menus, visitor experience design).
Convene regional partners (CVBs, WVMSPA, FGU, schools) around shared goals for visitation, workforce learning, and student exposure to tourism careers.
Photo credit: West Virginia Department of Tourism
New Resources Required from Both Sides
From WV Department of Tourism
Staff time from Tourism Works / Shape Our Future team to:
Identify schools and CTE/career centers whose tourism, hospitality, or culinary programs could participate.
Provide curriculum-aligned project prompts connected to Maple Days (e.g., “design a maple culinary experience itinerary,” “create an Almost Heaven–aligned maple day-trip campaign”). Visibility for Maple Days as a Tourism Works success story in Shape Our Future materials, website, and media.
Feature at least one story segment on students engaging in maple-related culinary or tourism projects.
From CVBs, WVMSPA, and Future Generations University
Host sites for student engagement: sugarhouses, tasting rooms, visitor centers, maple culinary events.
Local coordination with teachers/instructors to align student visits and projects with Maple Days operations.
Clear “student roles” menu (greeting visitors, social media content creation, culinary/food service support, interpretive demos).
Participation in short debriefs with educators to translate real-world work into classroom learning outcomes.
Activities Schedule (Who does what, when)
August–September
FGU/WVMSPA & CVBs: update Maple Days content hub and develop student engagement menu (shadowing, internships, projects).
WV Tourism (Tourism Works team): identify tourism, hospitality, and culinary programs interested in a Maple Days partnership; share curriculum connections and learning outcomes.
October–November
Joint planning meeting: WV Tourism, Department of Education reps, regional CVBs, FGU, and selected schools/CTCs/colleges.
Finalize: which classes participate, dates, roles, transportation, and assessment ideas.
Teachers assign Maple-focused projects (e.g., menu development using WV maple, visitor experience mapping, digital promotion plans).
December–Maple Days Season
WV Tourism:
Run earned/shared media campaign highlighting Maple Days and student involvement (“Tourism Works in the Sugarbush”).
CVBs & WVMSPA/Producers:
Host student groups during Maple Days; integrate them into hospitality, culinary, and visitor-experience roles.
FGU:
Capture stories, short videos, and reflections from students and producers for future curriculum and marketing use.
April
Debrief with partners and educators:
What worked for tourism businesses?
What advanced curriculum goals (hospitality, culinary, tourism marketing)?
Co-create a short case study: “How Maple Days Supports Tourism Works: Shape Our Future” for internal and external use.
MONITORING, EVALUATION, AND REPORTING PLAN
Student Engagement Metrics
Number of participating schools, programs (hospitality, culinary, tourism, marketing), and students.
Number of Maple Days work-based learning hours (shadowing, events, projects).
Business & Destination Metrics
Maple Days attendance, overnight stays, and partner business feedback.
Producer and CVB assessments of student contribution to visitor experience and operations.
Education & Workforce Pipeline Outcomes
Teacher feedback on alignment with Shape Our Future curriculum standards.
Student surveys on interest in tourism/culinary careers before and after Maple Days.
Number of students who express interest in tourism-related degrees, certificates, or Tourism Pathway programs.
Reporting:
Mid-season update highlighting early media hits and student stories.
End-of-season report summarizing visitation, business, and education outcomes, plus a short “Maple Days & Tourism Works” case study.
Photo credit: West Virginia Department of Tourism
HAS DELIVERED
Our Partnership with WV Tourism
The opportunity to travel with loved ones is a gift, and one we don’t plan on wasting.
WVMSPA & Maple Producers: Experienced in hosting visitors, school groups, and culinary partners during Maple Days and other events.
County CVBs: Extensive record of supporting student projects, tourism internships, and destination storytelling around outdoor recreation and heritage tourism.
Future Generations University:
Active in maple-focused economic development, community-based education, and interpretive storytelling; ready to serve as a bridge between producers, educators, and WV Tourism.
WV Department of Tourism – Tourism Works: Leading workforce development for tourism, including Shape Our Future, which brings hospitality and tourism curriculum into middle and high schools and builds pathways into degree and certificate programs.
Staff Experience
Regional Campaign & Education Liaison (FGU / WVMSPA):Background in applied community development, tourism communications, and agritourism storytelling; experience coordinating Maple Days, working with CVBs, and supporting producer education.
CVB Directors / Marketing & Education Contacts: Track record hosting school groups, coordinating with CTE programs, and designing tourism/culinary itineraries.
WV Tourism Tourism Works / Education Staff: Designers and managers of the Shape Our Future pathway and tourism curriculum collaborations with WVDE and community/technical colleges.
Specific Request of Partner & Returns
Request to WV Department of Tourism
Feature Mountain State Maple Days as both:
A flagship winter Almost Heaven travel experience, and
A living laboratory for Tourism Works: Shape Our Future— connecting curriculum to real tourism and culinary careers.
Commit to:
Joint earned/shared media campaign highlighting maple, students, and workforce stories.
Connecting at least one tourism/hospitality/culinary program in each participating county to Maple Days as a hands-on learning opportunity.
Co-authoring a short case study and making Maple Days a repeatable “Tourism Works” model.
Returns to WV Department of Tourism
A visible, high-impact example of Shape Our Future in action—students learning and working in real tourism settings, not just classrooms.
New content that showcases tourism, hospitality, and culinary careers as viable, exciting paths for West Virginians.
Stronger rural workforce pipelines tied to actual businesses—sugarhouses, restaurants, lodgings, and retail—who benefit from student engagement and increased visitation.
A model that can be applied to other culinary and heritage experiences across the state (ramps, buckwheat, festivals, farm trails), multiplying the impact of Tourism Works.
Anticipated Results
Baseline A – Where things stand now
Winter visitation is modest; maple is a niche awareness driver.
Maple Days content lives mostly on local channels with limited statewide reach.
Few structured links exist between maple agritourism, classrooms, and tourism careers.
Tourism will see…
B – After first coordinated campaign (Year 1)
C – After three consecutive campaigns (Years 2–3)
West Virginia’s image will change as…�� – After first coordinated campaign (Year 1)�Maple agritourism is consistently featured as part of the “Almost Heaven” winter story—showing West Virginia as warm, welcoming, and full of authentic flavor even in the off-season.�Social and earned media coverage frames the state as a place where visitors can “meet the maker,” not just buy the product.�� –After three consecutive campaigns (Years 2–3)�West Virginia is broadly recognized by in-state audiences and repeat visitors as a maple-forward, four-season destination, not just a summer-and-fall state.�Maple imagery (sugarhouses, steam, local breakfasts, student involvement) becomes part of the visual shorthand WV Tourism can use to represent rural innovation, heritage, and opportunity.�Shape Our Future stories can point to Maple Days as a flagship example of tourism, culinary arts, and community development working together.
Together, we can turn a strong regional tradition into a signature
Almost Heaven experience.