Pushing Jamaica as a tourist destination

From DNA Info:

Jamaica could be New York's next tourist hotspot — at least that's the dream of the new head of the neighborhood's Business Improvement District.

Rhonda Binda is planning to organize tours around the neighborhood and launch a series of pop-up installations that would highlight local history and cultural achievements.

Binda, 37, a former White House employee who got her law degree at Georgetown University, became the BID's executive director last month.

A Jamaica native who currently lives in the area, she said she is teaming up with the Queens Tourism Council to organize themed tours around the neighborhood for both locals and travelers who have long layovers at JFK.

“We can have people come for a walking tour or a shopping tour,” she said.

During the tours, participants would be able to learn about places important in jazz and hip-hop history, visit old churches or eat at restaurants serving a variety of ethnic cuisines, she said.

Oh brother. Tourists with layovers at JFK? Concentrate on locals. How about starting with cleaning the place up? People used to travel from Brooklyn, Nassau and all over Queens to shop on Jamaica Ave at one time. Now you couldn't pay them to go there.

Here's the latest article about how LIC is "up and coming"

From the Daily News:

A Queens neighborhood that went from sprawling warehouses and manufacturing plants to luxury towers is now undergoing its latest transformation: as a haven for tourists.

Hotel developers are capitalizing on the area’s proximity to Manhattan — and lower nightly rates — to lure visitors to chic lodges that fight to outdo each others.

And many residents, who are moving in as high-rises continue to sprout up on the waterfront, are embracing the boom.

And then the article goes on to quote "residents" such as a spokesman for the city’s tourism agency, NYC & Co., the director of the Queens Tourism Council, and James the director of the tourism and hospitality program at LaGuardia Community College.

My favorite comment came from RexLIC, "I'm surprised it took until Thursday for the weekly "LIC is booming" article."

Are the tourists really spending money outside of their hotels in LIC? Especially the ones along Vernon Blvd across the street from a power plant?

My favorite "civic leader" George Stamatiades had this to say: “It’s a positive influx of development,” he said of the burgeoning local industry, though he complained that some developers are “nothing but bums.”

Markey forks over $70K in taxpayer money to the Mets, USTA & Resorts World

From the Queens Gazette:

Assemblymember Margaret M. Markey (D-Maspeth) announced on April 25 that the state of New York has awarded a grant of $70,000 to the Queens Tourism Council (QTC) to help it promote the borough as a destination during the upcoming year.

Markey, who now chairs the Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sports Development Committee, created the first tourism program for Queens when she was a member of the staff of Queens Borough President Claire Shulman and established the Queens Tourism Council. The group currently consists of some 50 entities, including hotels, cultural organizations, restaurants and venues such as Citi Field, the USTA and Resorts World Casino NYC.

When her hometown of Maspeth needed $50K to start ULURP action for a park, Marge came up empty. She's now allegedly "preserving" Astoria's Steinway Mansion by sitting on a committee to save it, but has put no money toward that, either.

Corporations that make billions? No problem finding $70K for them!

And this woman gets returned to the assembly by dopey voters time after time...

Grant money used to shill for major Queens venues

From the Queens Courier:

Now you can experience the “Real Culture/Authentic Flavor” of Queens.

Local officials, along with the Queens Tourism Council, launched the first ever “Real Culture/Authentic Flavor” summer promotion program, designed to highlight Queens activities and attractions for locals and tourists.

“There’s a lot to do here in America’s most diverse county,” said Borough President Helen Marshall. “This program will highlight dozens of events and attractions here in Queens, and tell visitors how to get discounts.”

Through a grant from the NYC & Company Foundation, the Tourism Council is providing special offers to various venues in Queens through brochures, websites and even Facebook. The main focus is bringing people into the restaurants and entertainment centers in the borough such as Citi Field, the US Open and Resorts World Casino New York City.

Citifield, the US Open and Resorts World are "the real culture/authentic flavor of Queens?"

If anyone can afford their own advertising, it's the above named establishments. Why is QTC wasting grant money shilling for them?

Good luck with that

From the Daily News:

A Queens professor hopes his students can help solve a riddle this summer that has confounded the borough's tourism experts for decades.

James Giordano will challenge his marketing class at LaGuardia Community College to devise plans to convince tourists who visit New York City to spend at least one day of their stay in Queens.

Giordano will forward the ideas to the Queens Economic Development Corp., which is slated to kick off its "75 Days of Summer" campaign today with help from Giordano's students.

Students will also visit area hotels and hot spots, hoping to convince them to offer discounts that could attract even more tourists.

Organizers are betting the students will offer fresh perspectives on pitching the borough to visitors through social media like Facebook and Twitter.

Stoddart said the borough will also re-launch the Queens Tourism Council, a collective of cultural groups and sites that fell inactive in recent years.

It's an effort to capitalize on droves of tourists who fly into Queens airports and stay at local hotels but spend most of their time and money in Manhattan.

Queens is where people live, not a place for outsiders to come to gawk. It's about time the city understood that and provided for the taxpayers instead of focusing on tourists all the time.

How NOT to publicize your borough

"Of course the folks at

Queens Economic Development Corporation
Queens Tourism Council
Queens Borough Hall
120-55 Queens Blvd, Room 309
Kew Gardens, NY 11424

could not find Rockaway with a map...

From their website.

Notice the map is of EAST ROCKAWAY in NASSAU County and they think LIC is a nearby 'hood."