Losing Stature

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statler

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The Globe said:
Losing stature
In recent years, Boston has been eclipsed by up-and-coming cities as a top tourist destination

By Tania deLuzuriaga, Globe Staff | October 22, 2007

Looking for good ethnic food? Sample San Antonio. Attractive people? Head to Minneapolis. A romantic escape? Try Santa Fe.

They may not be the most obvious choices, but lately they have all out-ranked Boston.

Once deemed the most European city in America and routinely ranked as a top travel destination, Boston's place in the minds of travelers has been eclipsed by up-and-coming cities in recent years. When Travel + Leisure rated the best cities in North America earlier this year, Boston wasn't even on the list.

Cond? Nast Traveler's "Reader's Choice Award" this week put Boston at No. 10, a hard fall after reigning at the top of the list with cities like New York and San Francisco during the 1990s. Now, it comes in behind cities like Charleston, S.C., Santa Fe, and Savannah, Ga.

It's not that tourists aren't coming to Boston. In fact, more come each year, with 18.8 million visiting in 2006, according to the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau. But around the country, it seems that some of the luster has worn off.

"Boston's had an image problem," said Linda L. Lowry, an associate professor of tourism and hospitality at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. "The Big Dig hasn't helped. . . . Hotel prices have gone up and up."

Mayor Thomas M. Menino said the city doesn't deserve the bum rap.

"This city is happening," he said. "Things are happening."

City Hall may tout that "It's all right here," but the 60,000 travelers who filled out an "America's Favorite Cities" poll released this month by CNN and Travel + Leisure apparently felt differently.

Of 25 cities, Boston was ranked 24th for weather, a mediocre 12th for nightlife, and a lukewarm 16th in a catch-all "characteristics" category.

Though Boston ranked near the top in antiques shopping, classical music, and as a destination for sports fans, it was near the bottom for affordability. The people surveyed thought Bostonians were intelligent (No. 3) but not particularly friendly (No. 21), attractive (No. 16), and stylish (No. 9).

Tourists interviewed last week didn't necessarily disagree, though several conceded that some things turned out to be different than they had imagined.

"The people here are not as fat as it is said in Europe," said Ralph Lebreton, 24, who was visiting Quincy Market last week from France.

Still, there were some familiar complaints.

"We've got a car, but we're not brave enough to drive here," said Ann Hillard of Toledo, Ohio, who was in town to see her son, a Harvard freshman.

"Trying to find a motel here that's affordable is outrageous," said Ted Alstrom, a 60-year-old leaf peeper from Belfair, Wash., who decided to stop off in the city for a few days. "I can't find anything for under $300."

It wasn't always this way. Travelers once considered Boston a peer of Madrid and New York. In 1991, Cond? Nast Traveler rated Boston the third-best city in America. A few years later, Boston was one of the 20 best cities in the world according to Travel + Leisure.

But as smaller cities like Charleston and Savannah started capitalizing on their assets and traditional tourist destinations like Las Vegas and Fort Lauderdale started rebranding themselves, Boston suddenly found itself with some steep competition.

"These days the world is a very small place." Lowry said. "Everyone's marketing themselves, people can learn about other destinations very quickly. Boston can't just say, 'We're old and historic."'

Which is pretty much what Boston has done.

"No one's going to pick up and move the Old North Church to South Beach," said Pat Moscaritolo, chief executive of the Greater Boston Visitors and Convention Bureau. "We've got great museums, wonderful cultural attractions. You can't change that."

Traffic may be awful, but that's why they call Boston "America's Walking City," Moscaritolo said. And good restaurants abound, even if it's nearly impossible to find a bite to eat after a Celtics game.

"The thing I like about Boston is its restaurants," said Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who favors Strega Ristorante in the North End and Abe & Louie's on Boylston Street. "New York and Chicago are one and two [for restaurants]. Then you got Boston, L.A. L.A.'s a great restaurant town, but you have to drive so far to get there. I walk 90 percent of the time."

And those $300-a-night hotel rooms? They have their upside: The 19 million people who visited here last year spent nearly $17.3 billion in the city.

Marc J. Spears of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
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Alert me when the number of tourists each year stop rising and hotel prices stop going up and up.
 
Underling: "Sir I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we sold 1000 widgets last month! The bad news is we have had a large increase in customer complaints."

Boss: "Who cares about the customer complaints, we sold 1000 widgets!"

Two months later:

Underling: "Bad news sir. We've only sold 20 widgets this month"

Boss: "What?!? How could this have happened?"
 
I guess I've just seen too many of these kind of surveys over the years ... they get posted all the time on sites like SSP, and they almost always show something different. It's like looking at polls before election day. I don't put much faith in them.
 
I would imagine they wouldn't hold up under scientific or statistical scrutiny. They do however give an all right 25,000 ft view of the situation.

What the city needs is some younger political talent at city hall. All these old geezers just don't seem to be in touch with today's Boston. And we need some people who are willing to tell the NIMBYs to STFU or GTFO in the nicest way possible.
 
^ I know that I always try to tell people to STFU in the nicest way possible :)
 
Well, here I am in Boston for the first time in a year. Nice to know that there are sooo few tourists. So few, I could stay in my choice of hotel! Just kidding, everything, and I mean EVERYTHING was sold out. Marriot? Nope. Liberty Hotel? Forget it. Anything in the Seaporrt? Nope. The Days Inn in Allston? Now you're talkin:

DaysInn.jpg


The view of the pile of dirt and the Petco is just spectacular. At least I am better off than my colleage who also came in today and is currently staying in Revere... :D
 
Head of the Charles weekend combined with Red Sox playoff games ... yeah, that's going to make things a bit tough.
 
Yeah, I've just never seen it so bad. Literally every hotel bar none sold out. Good for the hoteliers, in any case.
 
An excellent letter to the editor in todays Boston Globe:

http://tinyurl.com/2ukgev

Expand what tourists see of Boston

October 23, 2007

IN MONDAY'S article, "Losing stature," (City & Region), it is shown that Boston has lost much attraction as a tourist destination. The problems cited are the typical non-Bostonian complaints about "scary" traffic, unfriendly people, and overpriced hotels. There were also jabs at unattractiveness and absence of fashion, though I suppose it is quite unsettling when Midwesterners see people dressed in non-megastore clothes and not all with the same hairdos.

I am speaking as a true Bostonian born and raised in Hyde Park, temporarily exiled in Madison, Wis., for graduate school. So, what American tourists want in Boston is wide, grid streets, no cobblestone or brick sidewalks, and strip malls and stores they know like Culvers, Caribou, and Checkers.

Most especially they want the same fake, external display of friendliness and passive aggression as they are used to. Unfortunately, for many American tourists, our emotions are not illusive repressions, they are real and obvious.

Boston is Boston; we should not change the city to fit the mold of what non-New Englanders want us to be. In the long run this will destroy our identity and ultimately leave us with even less tourism.

That said, Boston does need a lot of work, especially in Downtown Crossing. What the city also needs to do is encourage tourists to see the real Boston, not just the downtown and college areas. Make it safer and easier to travel to Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, Dorchester, and maybe even Hyde Park, where Washington's troops were temporarily stationed during the American Revolution. Expand what the tourists see. Don't make Boston a different city.

MICHAEL J. KELLY
Madison, Wis.
 
Somerville would love to be on the tourist maps, since we have two genuine Revolutionary War sites (the Powderhouse and the Prospect Hill Tower)
 
Do people really care about revolutionary war sites? I find much of our history as a "product" embarrassing. Seeing grown adults dressed up as historical figures walking throughout the city just making shit up.
I think most people would rather a better zoo, better architecture, better restaurants and better weather. (not much we can do there...although global warming has provided us with an amazing fall.)

Perhaps a much improved aquarium and science museum is in order. Most people go to both with their children and or to see movies at their IMAX theaters. More attractions like these (mindless..remember these people are on vacation) would make the city more fun and less stuffy.

When you guys have friend in from out of town, how much time do you spend at "historical sites?"
 
nico said:
Perhaps a much improved aquarium and science museum is in order.
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Wasn't there a big plan to redo the MOS announced a while ago? Whatever happened to that?

I believe the Aquarium is still in rough shape financially and probably won't get a redo unless some super-rich fish lover moves into town.
 
I agree with the Boston Globe article. People who come to Boston don't even see the real Boston. All they know is the Back Bay, Downtown, and Colleges. Them areas only make up a small percentage of the city. They need to visit J.P and Dorchester and Roxbury and also Hyde Park to see how the majority of Boston lives.
 
Isn't that true of any major tourist city, though -- NYC, Chicago, SF, LA, etc?
 
Why do tourists want to go to Hyde Park? Would you go to Hyde Park on your vacation? "Oh look dear, its a Dunkin Donuts and a CVS. Take a picture!"

As for the MOS and the Aquarium; the MOS is the cream of the crop in terms of science museums throughout the world; the Aquarium used to be, fell on tough times, and is slowly rebuilding.

I'm actually one of the few life long Boston residents who does all the rinky dink touristy things, and I have to say, I think there are a lot of great things. The Children's Museum is excellent. The Old State House has great exhibits about colonial Boston. The USS Constitution Museum has a great exhibit about life on board the ship, and right now, has a great exhibit about the Barbary War.

I think the issue is that, Boston isn't Vegas or Orlando. We don't have Siegfried (sp?) & Roy or Celene Dion or Mikey & Minnie. But we do have financial institutions, corporate headquarters, and a ton of new conference space. I wonder, what if "tourists" had been replaced in that study with the much broader "visitors." I'm no doctor, but I'd be willing to bet Boston would do a lot better. As Dr. Spaceman says, "science is whatever we want it to be."
 
Underground,

I don't disagree with you for the most part, but you just happened to have picked two of the biggest convention towns in the world as your examples. Boston would lose ground in terms of "visitors" if we include those other criteria.
 
One reason I like Boston is that it doesn't try to compete on those terms ... which is why I don't much like the idea of a casino here.
 
statler said:
It's not that tourists aren't coming to Boston. In fact, more come each year, with 18.8 million visiting in 2006, according to the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau. But around the country, it seems that some of the luster has worn off.
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Doesn't this paragraph counteract the whole point of the article? If more people are visiting Boston, why are should we be concern about an internet poll that is non scientific in anyway?

However, I think Boston should do more to get international tourists to visit. They are much more valuable than domestic ones.
 
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