Articles tagged “st. louis”

Limitations on understanding the travelers visiting friends and relatives segment have been eroding, but they are still there when it comes to the imaginations of destination marketers. Tourism agencies should try to push the envelope.

With the federal government deadlocked in intractable partisan debate, mayors across the U.S. are stepping up to drive progress by cultivating their innovation economies. A growing number are developing innovation districts to elevate their cities' brands.

St. Louis is fortunate to have one of the more advanced startup communities of any third tier city in America, and it's leveraging that aggressively through the Murmuration Festival to reposition itself as a forward thinking destination for meetings and events.

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.

The St. Louis and Baltimore tourism bureaus used digital content wisely to protect their visitor economies during social unrest. Now they're attempting to use those same advocacy skills to help rebuild and strengthen their local communities to varying degrees of success.