Garden Walk Buffalo president Jim Charlier was contacted by an AP reporter about garden tourism and the effect of Garden Walk Buffalo as a tourism draw specifically, and garden tours in general. 

You can read the full article here. as it appeared on the Huffington Post.

The AP report was picked up by the Wall Street Journal, CBS News, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Huffington Post, Yahoo.com, Seattle Post Intelligencer, NOLA.com and more.

Jim was able to send the AP reporter names of other people, considered leaders in the field of garden tourism (among them, Richard Benfield, author of the forthcoming book Garden Tourism), and other people in other cities that are just starting on their own garden tours (like Cleveland's first-ever garden tour, Garden Walk Cleveland, Saturday, June 25, 2011).

In the AP article, Richard Benfield estimates garden tourism to be one of the country's fastest growing areas of leisure and recreation, appealing not only to an older crowd that may have outgrown the "roller-coaster scene," but also to younger homeowners in search of landscaping inspiration and to anyone in search of a simple breath of fresh air.

The article goes on to mention Buffalo's National Garden Festival's Open Gardens on Thursdays and Fridays, as well as their Front Yard Garden Contest and its remaking of an entire city block with competing landscapers. Ed Healy of Visit Buffalo Niagara is quoted as saying, ""For people coming a great distance, you have to show them that there are a critical mass of experiences."

Garden Walk Buffalo has also consulted have with people in other parts of the country, starting garden tours - in New Jersey, Erie PA and South Carolina.

When Garden Walk founders Marvin Lunenfeld & Gail McCarthy started Garden Walk Buffalo with their Norwood Avenue Block Club, I don't think they imagined that in less than 20 years they would have had an influence on garden tours in other parts of the country, inspired by their model. Previously, garden tours showed small quantities of select gardens, generally for a fee, and rarely in an urban setting. Few garden tours can claim to have improved neighborhoods and upped home values, let alone attracting a quarter of attendees from outside their area -- lining up to see gardens, crowding streets, jamming restaurants and filling up hotels.

PR Trak estimates that the AP article's placements are worth $540,000 in media (what it would cost to buy the equivalent advertising space) and have a $1.6 million publicity value.