HILTONS — Every Saturday night when Rita Forrester looks out over the crowds gathered at the Carter Family Fold, she sees more new faces.

Despite higher gas prices and an economic downturn affecting attendance at many music venues, the Fold has kept its numbers steady thanks to more visitors coming from outside the area.

“The numbers, especially of foreign visitors, are up considerably,” said Forrester, A.P. Carter’s granddaughter and Carter Fold executor. “I think that’s due to The Crooked Road specifically marketing to England and other European countries, and the fact that foreign visitors are finding they can vacation here for not a lot of money.”

People were coming to the Fold before, she said, but the exposure offered by being a focal point on The Crooked Road heritage music trail is one of the main reasons for the influx of new visitors.

Also, Forrester said she’s found many of those that come from abroad are as interested in the area’s history as much as its music.

“I have noticed an increase in tourism that is linked to history,” she said. “People want to learn something and see something historical when they visit, and I think that has worked in our favor.”

While the association with The Crooked Road project and Clinch Mountain Music Fest have helped expose the Carter Fold to new audiences across the world, the venue has also done some reaching out of its own, she said. The nonprofit started posting its Saturday night shows on its Web site last September and making them available for download.

For $5, the price of a ticket to a concert at the Fold, shows can be downloaded and watched for a week from anywhere in the world. It’s an effort, Forrester said, to give people far from Southwest Virginia a chance to experience what a Saturday night at the Carter Fold is all about.

“We’re finding there’s quite a bit of interest in it,” she said. “I believe it’s going to be good for visitors that want to come but can’t on a regular basis. It will give them the feeling of being at a show.”

The Carter Fold is also entering the last stages of its renovation of the A.P. Carter Museum. It’s a move that Forrester thinks will catch the interest of tourists and locals alike. The project, which is in the third of three phases, will bring computers and rotating exhibits to the historical country store.

“It will be more interactive, but we hope to still maintain the feeling of walking into an old country store,” she said. “It’s going to be a little difficult to do, but we hope to accomplish that.”

But even with the marketing campaigns, new museum exhibits and downloadable concerts, Forrester thinks it’s ultimately the music, and the Fold’s mission, that keeps visitors coming back.

“When my mom started the music show, she didn’t set out to be a tourist destination or make money,” she said. “She was fulfilling a promise to her dad to keep this music alive, and that was her major focus. I think she accomplished that.”