“Get in on it.”
How about getting city employees in on it?
Do you Believe The Greatest City in America can Get In On It?
Yet, all the tourist branding and community spirit-building words in the world won?t make up for how Charm City treats people ? visitors and residents alike.
According to the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, slogans generate “civic pride” and are designed to build localmorale as well as position our image to potential visitors.
Silly us. We didn?t understand our brand positioning. Did you? Will the slogan move more folks to come to our fine port on the Chesapeake?
It seems like the 12 million tourists who visited the city last year ? a seven-year high ? weren?t in on it either, or at least got here without being in on it.
It takes a great leap of faith to believe $500,000 the BACVA paid to out-of-state firms for this tagline ? released last week ? will draw millions more tourists and pump dollars into city businesses.
Once here, maybe they will get in on it and want to come back. But accomplishing that means providing a safe city and encouraging all of us to be nice, because it?s nice to be important, but more important to be nice.
Incidents such as the one in which a young Virginia couple were thrown into jail for asking a police officer for directions in Cherry Hill send the message that we don?t care about visitors.
Any successful tourist campaign must ensure that all city employees likely to run into tourists “get in on it.”
