Frederick Douglass, Eubie Blake and Billie Holiday all called Baltimore home.
And tourism officials hope these legends and the attractions that honor them will help the city further tap into a growing consumer market: the black traveler.
“There are so many legends that claim Baltimore as their home, and the influence they had on our culture is still being felt today,” said Nancy Hinds, a spokeswoman with the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Center. “Baltimore is well-positioned to capture a huge share of the $9 billion-a-year minority market.”
Hinds said Baltimore boasts a larger-than-average number of attractions that appeal to black visitors, and new ones are coming online. In June, the Frederick Douglass/Isaac Myers Maritime Park will open in Fell?s Point; an ongoing exhibit at the Sports Legends at Camden Yards Museum features the American Negro League; and the National Blacks in Wax Museum?s expansion is nearing completion.
And the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, which opened June 2005, should continue to lure new visitors, as should BACVA marketing efforts that directly target black tourists, Hinds said.
Victoria Stinson, public relations and marketing manager at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, is excited for the summer tourism season to begin, especially since the museum will feature an exhibit on the NBA, featuring players who came from the region ? an exhibit for which she said there was not a venue until the museum?s opening.
The Travel Industry Association of America reports that black travel rose 4 percent from 2000 to 2002, compared with a 2 percent increase for travel overall during the same period.
Topping the trend, black travel statewide represented 10 percent of all person-trips in 2003, compared with the entire country where trips by blacks comprised just 5 percent of all trips, according to the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.
The Black Tourist
» Approximately 1.9 million person-trips and 1.176 million household trips were taken to Maryland by black travelers in 2003.
