Abstract
This article proposes a destination-planning framework for conceptualizing a Virtual African American Heritage Trail in Georgetown County, South Carolina. Located within the coastal region of South Carolina and between the major tourism markets of Charleston and Myrtle Beach, Georgetown contains a historically rich but spatially dispersed landscape of African American heritage sites that remain underrepresented in regional tourism promotion.
To address this gap, the study integrates the AIDA hierarchy of effects with Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) to explain how virtual interpretation can support early-stage destination development. AIDA is used to illustrate how digital engagement can move audiences from awareness to interest, desire, and action, while TALC provides a structure for understanding how destinations evolve through stages of exploration, involvement, and development. The framework argues that virtual heritage platforms can generate early indicators of demand, strengthen narrative visibility, and guide phased tourism investment before extensive physical infrastructure is required. Although the analysis focuses on Georgetown, the model offers a transferable planning approach for coastal communities seeking to integrate special interests such as heritage into competitive tourism markets.
Recommended Citation
Christia, Jerome; Calhoun, Jacqueline; and Dellegrazie, Elisabeth
(2026)
"Conceptualizing a Virtual African American Heritage Trail in Georgetown, South Carolina: A Marketing and Destination Staging Framework,"
The Coastal Business Journal: Vol. 21:
No.
1, Article 2.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/cbj/vol21/iss1/2