When the Kentucky Artisan Heritage Trails (KAHT) website goes online next spring, local merchants, artists, inn keepers, and restaurant owners may not just be boosting local commerce. In fact, business owners may be capitalizing on new technology to promote and perhaps preserve regional traditions, art forms, and entertainment.

Merchants and artists met last week at the Acton Folk Center to hear a presentation about the trail by Ceryl Morehead of the technology and eceonmic Development center at Eastern Kentucky University.

Morehead said the Kentucky Artisan Heritage Trails website is being coordinated with the effort to build the Kentucky Gateway Artisan Center, which will promote Appalachian arts and crafts in the region, but will also provide tourists with links to several area attractions, including art studios and galleries, restaurants, historical and cultural landmarks, and lodging.

The meeting was hosted by the Berea Tourism Center and the Berea Chamber of Commerce.

Morehead added that the website would be linked to a computer kiosk at the artisan center, which would allow tourists to pring out maps of the region. The maps would highlight certain attractions that could be specific to meet the tourists' interests.

In addition the site will feature several categories of local artists, including potters, photographers, wood craftsmen, as well as many other area craftsmen. The website is currently designed to cover attractions in Berea, as well as sites in Rockcastle, Estil, and Jackson counties, though that list will be expanded.

Morehead said the new program will be more effective for local business owners than a tour book, such as Handmade in America, because it can be updated at least once a month, if not more often. That would allow for the promotion of individual events such as festivals, art shows, concerts, or other presentations.

"It serves you better than a book," Morehead said. "We think this format will be better."

As part of the Kentucky Artisan Heritage Trail program, merchants will be purchasing signs that will alert motorists to their participation in the trail.

Kathy Werking, who is helping to establish the KAHT website, said the signs coordinated with Internet links may be as effective or more than conventional advertising when it comes to attracting tourists to local businesses.

"I think it's a really low-cost way to provide advertising for your business," Werking said.

Werking went on to note that there will be a workshop on how to promote businesses on the Internet November 8 at the Perkins Building at Eastern Kentucky University, from 6-8 p.m.

Berea Chamber of Commerce President Sandra Bolin said one of the most impressive features of the KAHT project is that it showcases the wide diversity of artists, galleries and other features the community has to offer.

"When you see all that we have to offer, it really makes you proud," Bolin said.