Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
I can't speak for international tourists, but Nashville is quite the hot spot for many friends and acquaintances in my age group (mid-late 20s). All the time, I see people traveling there to go party and have fun. My girlfriend had to organize a bachelorette party for her best friend there last year, and more than half of the girls had already visited the city multiple times. I assume it's closely linked with the "pop"-ification of country music. I've never been there myself, except just to drive through.
New Orleans I can speak to, since I lived there... the entire economy is based on tourism, so you can bet your ass they're going to promote it heavily. There's no other major industries to fall back on, especially since the oil & gas industry all decamped for Houston. The New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau has a gleaming headquarters and an annual budget in the tens of millions. Countless other institutions and organizations based in the city believe they have a key mission to promote the city's arts and culture around the US and the world.
|
i think chicago needs to carve out and articulate its own niche. we have live music, and its SO much better than whats available in these cities. the thing is we're big enough to the degree that basically any national touring band will make a stop without a second thought, and we get a lot of the cool one off/limited engagement things that maybe only land in 3 or 4 places in north america. what we're actually producing however is more difficult to pin down.
whats unique about nashville and NOLA is theyre seen as party destinations, as you mention. so people will specifically go there to get real drunk and go out and listen to some sorta OK gigs. this is like, the vegas model. SUPER tourism dependent.
chicago on the other hand is more similar to LA or NYC. we get extremely high quality music across all genres, but it caters to locals because theres enough people here that support small sub-genres to actually sustain little venues that just do their thing day in and day out. of course we get tourists as well, but we dont NEED that to sustain our music infrastructure.
and i think thats where it gets difficult from a marketing perspective. because if youre NOLA you can easily articulate the "sound" someone is going to hear if they make a journey there. that dosent mean its cutting edge, but its easy to sell to 40 and 50 year old somethings on holiday.
its more difficult to say we are SETTING the trends that are taking place in ramshackle warehouses on the south and west sides that people will be talking about 5 years from now, and by the time you hear about it, the scene will already be over and done with.
so if youre NOLA you say, 'well we are selling you jazz, and actually a very specific type of jazz that is easily digestable to a wide range of palates. oh, and weve got booze and crawfish". and right there youve got an easy elevator pitch.
so we've had moments where a critical mass of a certain sound peaked among a certain subset of people. house, alt-country, conscious rap, alternative in the 90s, juke/footwork, trap, etc. But those genres are made for and listened to by people close to it in the first place. its not really designed for export, and if it does export, it still dosent have a very broad mass appeal until much later. its very difficult to capture that in a bottle, and honestly i dont know if a tourism agency should try to. the people who are tuned into that sort of stuff will show up one way or the other regardless of advertising and branding. same as NY and LA.
but i still think the city falls short in showcasing its neighborhoods and the diversity of the city. the average visitor never leaves downtown. im not saying drop the money shots of downtown. but if were ever going to increase tourism, its going to have to come from people taking an interest in our city beyond a very cliche and played out downtown. start emphasizing our residential vernacular at an international level. start emphasizing our local cuisine. someone in asia should want to come here because they want to see our historic and in-tact bungalow neighborhoods and eat tripe tacos. thats the difference. we have so many assets that just are sitting on the shelf and no one seems very interested in dusting them off to realize their full value and potential.
Prev
Linear Mode
