Generic
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- Feb 24, 2011
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Recently an out of town reporter wrote an article about our city that basically seemed to fault the city tourism board and ask the question, is she seeing the real city or is it just idealized? And I asked myself the question... what do my guests see... is it the real city or something idealized. And for me the answer was simple... the real city. And the reason is... I live in a real neighbourhood, a place where people walk to the store, sit in the cafés and enjoy the restaurants.
I realized two things...
I realized two things...
- The tourism board's job is to promo an idealized version of the city because most of their members don't offer an authentic experience or can't. They are downtown, a neighbourhood that is sparsely occupied at night, or they are in the old part of the city, a very expensive neighbourhood that is full of restaurants and souvenir shops, if you add the rides, it's an amusement park.
- They don't know how to market to Europeans at all. The marketing message to the US works, but that message is exactly what doesn't work with the Europeans. Telling the US that it's like Europe isn't going to bring Europeans in... they already have that, at home!