|PIC1|The Stockyards is a tourist area that celebrates the cattle business with it's cowboy heritage, the Longhorns, the cattle spreads and cattle drives. It is called the Stockyard, because it was once actually the centre of the American cattle sales industry.
"The USA know how to market its history," M V Tronson noted. "The Stockyard area in Forth Worth is a classic example of the tourism industry capitalising on this aspect of American cultural heritage."
"We were welcomed by a cowboy on a Longhorn cow who immediately alighted and offered our party a photo opportunity on the Longhorn. We were assured that the Longhorns knew their way about after trooping up the main street and back twice a day for 'the Longhorn parade' for the past twenty five years," M V Tronson smiled.
M V Tronson has had a passion for Tourism Ministry and established and ran 'Australia's Bush Orchestra' from 1996 through to 2005 in Moruya, a town on the New South Wales south coast.
At this venue, visitors would take a bush walk through a tall ironbark forest under the sound of a natural bush symphony of bird song dominated by the call of the Bell Miner (Bellbird). Tourists throughout the world visited and as they wandered around and came for their cuppa and a short video at the end of their walk. Mark Tronson would engage them in conversation.
"Learning about the importance of the art of conservation is crucial as that was how Jesus imparted truth. We discovered that a ministry centered around tourism was very much a people-oriented ministry," M V Tronson noted.
And this is what Mark and Delma found at the Stockyards in Forth Worth. Although it is most definitely a tourism business enterprise, it is also where people are the key to the ministry and engaged by Christians on the ground.
"The Christian scene in America is clearly more articulated on the street than it is in Australia, nonetheless we discovered that the tourism ministry model we had engaged in those years was very much along the same lines," M V Tronson said.
This visit to Fort Worth was one of numerous research visits undertaken by Mark and Delma Tronson since 2006. It is helpful for them to see how pastoral care and tourism can interact in a range of situations, so that the tourism ministry aspect of Well-Being Australia can improve and grow.
Tourism Ministry is even more pertinent today in these tough economic times with the push to see Australians take, for many, long overdue annual leave and then to holiday within Australia. Federal Government Minister Martin Ferguson said no one should feel any guilt over taking their family for a holiday.