From the NY TimesQueens Is a Draw for Tourists
To the Editor:
While we applaud the kudos Bob Brody gives to our most diverse borough in “Queens, for a Day” (Op-Ed, Dec. 17), Queens is hardly “an afterthought” in citywide tourism and marketing plans.
NYC & Company has long championed Queens and all it has to offer.
Through events like the Jamaica Art and Music Summer Festival and the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival; cultural and educational destinations like the Noguchi Museum and the Museum for African Art; or its interesting pre-Revolutionary War history and Jazz heritage — plus spectacular restaurants, promoted through our Taste & Tour initiative — Queens is highlighted as a travel and tourism destination regularly.
NYC & Company is committed to a five-borough strategy to achieve Mayor Bloomberg’s tourism mandate — to attract 50 million visitors by 2015 — by highlighting all of our boroughs as unique, vibrant and essential parts of the greatest city in the world.
Tim McGuinness
Executive Director, NYC Visit
Midtown Manhattan
Ever notice how the directors of Manhattan-based agencies, like this one and the LPC get a bit defensive when the subject of attention to Queens is brought up?
Check out the NYC Visit Guide for yourself and decide if they give equal time to boroughs outside the Isle of Manahatta.
11 comments:
As much as I love Queens I don't think that (right now) there's any "super block-buster" attraction that's going to pull tourists off that Manhattan corridor. The Brooklyn Museum (featuring world class Egyptology galleries) can't compete with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, when you've got limited travel time and dollars! The Queens Museum as an attraction? I doubt it! The only time you'll get a tourist to come to Queens is during the USTA sposored US Open. They'll come to watch the tennis matches (if they're already in town). Noguchi Museum? Great place! But nobody's going to give up a day for that versus visiting the South Street Seaport! See what I mean? You can promote all you want! But the great Zeigfeld knew you can't promote a "non-attraction". It's all about "box-office"! And there is none! Maybe if we sell tickets to a John Liu hanging and provide a free lunch, there are those who wouldn't mind visiting Flushing's second rate Chinatown!
The really funny thing they forget when they promote dining in Queens:
with few exceptions (as for example, Czech) every ethnic dining can already be found in Manhattan in nabes that are far more convenient.
As I always say, 90% Manhattan, 9% Brooklyn, and the other three runts fight over the bones.
I remember when Channel 13 did David Hartman and Barry Lewis "Walk through Queens," Vicky Schneps, I believe, complained that they spent too much time at the Steinway Piano factory and not enough time at the ... Queens Zoo. Does anyone want to comment on what's wrong with this picture?
Hartman and Lewis skipped Maspeth, Middle Village, Glendale, Ridgewood, Howard Beach, Woodhaven... places that only exist on the city map during tax season.
I absolutely love the "fighting over bones" crack because it's so damn true! Hey, I've got it! If we put a "Mall of New York" type of attraction (like the one in Albany) at both our airports (Disney designed & managed) , tourists can view "highlights" of the "Best of Queens" in an abreviated format, and not have to venture into "the wilds" to waste their time. That'll give them more days to savor Manhattan's real treats like Rockefeller Center etc.! You know, the "good stuff". Maybe we could install a mini-village of typical "Queens Crap Housing" (located adjacent to airport restrooms)! This might"inspire" them (and help lighten the weight of the aircraft) before they take that long trip back home!
Imagine a tourist child going back home and writing "that most famous of all" school composition, "How I Spent My Summer Vacation"? Do you really think he's going to write about Queens when he tells about his visit to the "Big Apple". I've got a good connection that's willing to supply our dopey Beep for free (I'm just kidding, you "Narcs")! She's gotta be on something!
I have a sneaking suspicion that all the tourism (the 7 train! downtown Flushing! etc) is aimed at the relatives of the people that are living in those communities, not at the general public.
There is a method to this madness.
Maybe they can be encouraged to move here! The more to 'tweed."
Just an idea...
Well, I think the interesting thing about Manhattan or Brooklyn is that private ideas and creativity is not only encouraged, but supported. This seeps out into the community and makes it an interesting place even to wander around. There is always a surprise around the next corner. In Queens, well, everything is decided by the state and, as such, it has as much spontaneity and general interest as the straight marching ranks of frozen smiles found in your typical closed society.
I propose an exhibit at JFK and LGA airports on Queens history. This way, the tourists can check our borough off their sightseeing lists. They'll head up to Yankee Stadium and check off the Bronx, then do the roundtrip on the ferry and check off Staten Island. All they'll have to then do to complete the 5 borough experience is look for Heath Ledger in Brooklyn, and spend the rest of their time looking up at all the tall buildings in Manhattan. Also, if they get stuck at the airport, the name "Queens" will be the word seared into their minds as a truly miserable place to get stuck. This way, when they head back to the midwest with dreams of coming back to the big city to "make it big," they'll stay out of Queens completely.
You just watch! It's a "red herring"! Most of the dollars that are going to be spent on promoting tourism in Queens is going to be diverted and wind up mainly in the Flushing Meadows Corona Park vicinity! After all, we've got to support all the institutions that make their homes there. A lot of that money is going to trickle into the salaries of the various executive directors who run them. Some are paid as high as $95,000 a year! Not bad for a "patronage job". Maybe if I kissed the ass of the right politico, I can land a great job like that!
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