St. Louis Rethinks Tourism Marketing in Response to Ferguson Violence
Photo Credit: High-tech DJ/rapper Flying Lotus will perform at the first Murmuration Festival this month in St. Louis. The city's tourism authorities are still trying to respond to a legacy of racism in the region. Flying Lotus
Skift Take
The Ferguson violence in 2014 rightly highlighted St. Louis' deep problems with systematic racism. While this is certainly no cure for that, the city's new coalition of tourism and business interests should inspire other cities to develop stronger public-private partnerships that benefit both visitors and their local communities.
Two years after the August 2014 unrest in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, the St. Louis tourism bureau and a broad coalition of business and civic leaders launched a new collaborative marketing campaign designed to show a city working together in unison.
Today, it’s becoming more common for tourism and economic development agencies to share resources and research to co-create promotional initiatives aimed at attracting both visitors and new residents.
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Those types of partnerships are difficult to develop, however, because different organizations in the public and private sectors are often committed to their own strategic plans, budgets, and business models. The only way this works is if there’s strong local leadership, with a collaborative mindset among all of the entities involved, and a singular mission revolving around well-defined common goals.
In the case of St.
