The Orange County Convention CenterYou know, I am the kind of person that believes in giving credit where it is do. Even if it is to someone who doesn't really care for me for whatever the reason. Actually, it's probably because he cannot handle my "real world New York" approach to things. Little to over the top for his "good ole' boy" perspectives I suppose.
Anyway, the person I am referring to is, Orlando Sentinel Columnist, Mike Thomas. He wrote an outstanding column in Thursday January 11, 2007 's Sentinel about the Orlando/Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureau's advertising campaigns new slogan, "Built for families. Made for memories".
With the world throwing up new "Universal Studios", new "Disney Worlds", new and better "convention centers", "state of the art technological/interactive theme parks", "state of the art casinos/resorts", we, the Orlando/Orange County market, expect to create some feel good come visit me vibe with the super lame and outdated slogan, "Built for families. Made for memories"? Hello, are you people dead or, just in a stupor? What nerds came up with this gem?
Let me fill you in a little bit. As someone who is involved in the tourism/convention industry, and, has been for awhile, we have our work cut out for us. And this insipid slogan is NOT going to help. Tourism is down and slipping for a variety of reasons. let me list some for you:
1)In this country, theme parks are NOT the draw they once were. With the advance in technology, kids, and adults, have alot more intriguing things to spend time on than an out dated theme park and it's components.
2)Most of the "attractions" around our area, have priced themselves out of reach for the average guy. Yeah, they have "special" offers etc. You have to be a freaking rocket scientist to figure them out though.
3)Foreign tourism is down bigtime for a variety of reasons:
a)The rude and crude welcomes foreigners get when coming to the US now
b)The expensiveness of coming to the States when they can get the same things
for a lot less and closer to home
c)They can experience some of these things in an atmosphere that is more in line
with their own culture
It is time for "our neck of the woods" to come up with some new inventive ideas and attractions that are indemic to our area and culture. It is time to give our "adult" conventioners some adult oriented entertainment that will make them want to come here instead of going to Vegas, Europe, or Asia. Adults that are here for conventions are NOT interested in Mickey Mouse, Spiderman or Shamu. Or, 132 bpm at 112 decibels in tacky clubs.
Wake up Central Florida and get off the "wussy wagon" or, we will be sitting around looking at a bunch of weather worn used to be empty "resorts"!
Peace & Soulz,
Bobby Sharpewww.myspace.com/akuasharpe
1 comment:
You're right Bob. The people who run Orange County and particularly the folks who run the OCCC. Either don't realize or don't care about what its going to take to lure Convention business from more "adult friendly Las Vegas" You can't lure shows like SEMA or the Consumers Electronic Show or dozens of other lesser shows whos attendees are large spenders with Mickey and Nickelodean. It takes Adult guaged entertainment and incentives for shows coming for the first time. As far as incentives are concerned, I don't think the County would go broke if in order to lure big shows they offered BIG DISCOUNTS to first time shows. What with the tourist tax and all the income these shows would generate for the local economy they would still probably show a profit and even if they didn't, don't they think we could make a good enough impression to have them come back again and again?
Speaking of the future Florida is going to HAVE TO legalize Gambling. Not just Casinos such as Atlantic City has, the only people that benefit from that are people like Donald Trump, Harrahs, Ballys etc. For everyone to benefit, it must be Statewide as it is in Navada. The last time Gambling was voted down in Fla. (the odd thing is I polled people who rode in my Taxi all that week and all but a few voted FOR not AGAINST) the State was preparing to limit it to certain Countys; Dade, Broward, Orange, Osceola and one or two in the panhandle. This is not the way to do it. Citizens who own small stores or motels should be able to have slots in their establishments so they too could benefit. JMO
Post a Comment