Bookstore Tourism Goes Nonprofit in January

Bookstore Tourism, a grassroots effort to promote and support independent bookstores by marketing them as tourist destinations, has continued to grow into a nationwide campaign. And now its architect, Larry Portzline, a Harrisburg-based writer for the Pennsylvania State Senate, is creating a nonprofit organization to promote the concept: the National Council on Bookstore Tourism (NCBT). The council will serve as a free, comprehensive resource for those interested in promoting Bookstore Tourism and designing their own bookstore tours. "Some ideas were just meant to be given away," Portzline told BTW.

Larry Portzline

"I want the NCBT to serve as a central point of contact for all of the various folks interested in creating their own Bookstore Tours," Portzline said. "I would like to be a sort of clearinghouse for people interested in pursuing bookstore tourism programs of one kind or another. Say, for example, the American Library Association wanted to offer a trip to bookstores in the Southwest, the NCBT could provide the resources."

The council will offer several levels of membership and services, including marketing and promotional assistance, consulting, relationship building, newsletters, e-news, and more. Portzline said the NCBT will be a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and will seek grants and donations from a variety of sources. It will also develop partnerships with the bookselling and travel industries, libraries, educators, publishers, cultural tourism organizations, and economic development agencies at the national, state, and local levels. The nonprofit's official launch date is January 1, 2006.

To date, the NCBT board includes Jennifer Bigelow, Southern California Booksellers Association executive director; Cindy Dach, marketing coordinator of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona; Len Vlahos, director of BookSense.com; and Donna Paz of Paz & Associates. Portzline will serve as board chairman and executive director.

Portzline's sold-out "bookstore road trips" have become the model for others around the U.S., including the Southern California Booksellers Association, which has led tours of its own for booklovers in Los Angeles and San Diego.

More information about bookstore tourism is available at Portzline's website, www.bookstoretourism.com, and in his how-to book on the subject, Bookstore Tourism: The Book Addict's Guide to Planning & Promoting Bookstore Road Trips for Bibliophiles & Other Bookshop Junkies ($10, Bookshop Junkie Press). --Karen Schechner