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Here's a pretty good article in this week's edition of the Free Times about Columbia's tourism potential that touches on some subjects we've discussed in other threads. A relevant excerpt:
It’s long-held tradition for any self-aware Columbia resident to bemoan the affable blandness of the city. We’re a college town, a government town and a military town, a football town with a drinking problem or a drinking town with a football problem, what have you. Or, as has often been said, the best thing about Columbia is that we’re only two hours from the beach, two hours from the mountains and less than two hours from Charlotte, which, if you haven’t heard, has a lot.
That popular perception, both outside the city but especially among its residents, has long served to dampen the potential and possibilities that Columbia presents as a veritable tourism destination.
“I think that’s relatively true,” when asked about this self-deprecating attitude, agrees Lee Snelgrove. He’s the executive director for the city-backed nonprofit One Columbia for Arts & History, tasked with growing local culture to help grow tourism.
“We’ve long talked about it as Columbia’s self-esteem issue,” he continues, “and a lot of people do talk about Columbia just being close to the beach and close to the mountains. We’re maybe a little later to develop because we haven’t thought of ourselves as a real tourist destination.”
That line of thinking that can be easy to fall into, but it’s easy to flip the notion on its head. The city also boasts the biggest gated tourism attraction in the state (Riverbanks Zoo), the largest children’s museum in the Southeast (Edventure), the state’s only national park (Congaree), and a wealth of arts and cultural institutions (the Columbia Museum of Art, two professional ballet companies, the Nickelodeon Theatre, the South Carolina Philharmonic, a thriving theatre community, and various cultural offerings from the state’s largest university).
But people who are within easy travel to Columbia have many other options. Those who live in the Atlanta area, for instance, could get to Asheville, the ballyhooed jewel of the Western North Carolina mountains, just as easily as they could get here. Indeed, that snarky line about Columbia’s best asset being proximity to other places — Charlotte, Charleston, the Grand Strand, etc. — is the flip side of one of the city’s biggest challenges when it comes to attracting visitors: “Why should I go there when I could go here?”...
“In some of the research we did when we were doing a brand refresh a few years ago, we found that people within the state of South Carolina have a less favorable perception of Columbia than people outside the state of South Carolina,” offers Kelly Barbrey, vice president of marketing and communications at Experience Columbia, the Midlands’ chief tourism authority. “We want to really encourage residents to be excited about Columbia and be as big of cheerleaders for Columbia as we are.”
But in recent years, sentiments about Columbia from both outside and within seem to be shifting. The combination of the Main Street District revitalization, an increasingly sophisticated food and beverage scene, and a newly emboldened and energetic arts community has given the city a renewed sense of cool.
Numerous regional and national publications, including Thrillist (which highlighted “18 Must-Try Restaurants in Columbia, SC” in August) and the U.S. News and World Report (which calls Columbia “a traditionally Southern place with a modern twist”), have highlighted the city as an underrated tourism destination.
Tourism jobs are mostly low-paying, so I don't think putting a huge emphasis on tourism is a winning formula.
Yes this is true, but adding to the tourism scene also involves more amenities for residents as a result of increased tourism.
Also, an increase in tourism could could bring that decision maker from the next big company to locate their headquarters here in Columbia, SC. Tourism broadens our opportunity to appeal to outsiders in many ways.
To see tourism as only the proliferation of low paying jobs is a bit short sighted.
Tourism jobs are mostly low-paying, so I don't think putting a huge emphasis on tourism is a winning formula.
While this is mostly true, with tourism, many areas/metros are looking at the tourist dollars being spent in restaurants, at hotels, at businesses, at gas stations, etc. That's why you always see numbers thrown around when a "big event" comes to town, like the NCAA Tournament this past March and they might say it brought X amount of millions to the area over 3 or 4 days.
Tourism jobs are mostly low-paying, so I don't think putting a huge emphasis on tourism is a winning formula.
No one is advocating that Columbus take a page out of Myrtle's playbook but that it uses its existing strengths and assets to bolster tourism. You should read the entire article to get the gist of what the writer is talking about.
Here's a pretty good article in this week's edition of the Free Times about Columbia's tourism potential that touches on some subjects we've discussed in other threads. A relevant excerpt:
It’s long-held tradition for any self-aware Columbia resident to bemoan the affable blandness of the city. We’re a college town, a government town and a military town, a football town with a drinking problem or a drinking town with a football problem, what have you. Or, as has often been said, the best thing about Columbia is that we’re only two hours from the beach, two hours from the mountains and less than two hours from Charlotte, which, if you haven’t heard, has a lot.
That popular perception, both outside the city but especially among its residents, has long served to dampen the potential and possibilities that Columbia presents as a veritable tourism destination.
“I think that’s relatively true,” when asked about this self-deprecating attitude, agrees Lee Snelgrove. He’s the executive director for the city-backed nonprofit One Columbia for Arts & History, tasked with growing local culture to help grow tourism.
“We’ve long talked about it as Columbia’s self-esteem issue,” he continues, “and a lot of people do talk about Columbia just being close to the beach and close to the mountains. We’re maybe a little later to develop because we haven’t thought of ourselves as a real tourist destination.”
That line of thinking that can be easy to fall into, but it’s easy to flip the notion on its head. The city also boasts the biggest gated tourism attraction in the state (Riverbanks Zoo), the largest children’s museum in the Southeast (Edventure), the state’s only national park (Congaree), and a wealth of arts and cultural institutions (the Columbia Museum of Art, two professional ballet companies, the Nickelodeon Theatre, the South Carolina Philharmonic, a thriving theatre community, and various cultural offerings from the state’s largest university).
But people who are within easy travel to Columbia have many other options. Those who live in the Atlanta area, for instance, could get to Asheville, the ballyhooed jewel of the Western North Carolina mountains, just as easily as they could get here. Indeed, that snarky line about Columbia’s best asset being proximity to other places — Charlotte, Charleston, the Grand Strand, etc. — is the flip side of one of the city’s biggest challenges when it comes to attracting visitors: “Why should I go there when I could go here?”...
“In some of the research we did when we were doing a brand refresh a few years ago, we found that people within the state of South Carolina have a less favorable perception of Columbia than people outside the state of South Carolina,” offers Kelly Barbrey, vice president of marketing and communications at Experience Columbia, the Midlands’ chief tourism authority. “We want to really encourage residents to be excited about Columbia and be as big of cheerleaders for Columbia as we are.”
But in recent years, sentiments about Columbia from both outside and within seem to be shifting. The combination of the Main Street District revitalization, an increasingly sophisticated food and beverage scene, and a newly emboldened and energetic arts community has given the city a renewed sense of cool.
Numerous regional and national publications, including Thrillist (which highlighted “18 Must-Try Restaurants in Columbia, SC” in August) and the U.S. News and World Report (which calls Columbia “a traditionally Southern place with a modern twist”), have highlighted the city as an underrated tourism destination.
Interesting read.. The statement from the VP of Experience Columbia is telling.. "people in SC have a less favorable perception of Columbia" you could probably add the Midlands and residents of the City of Columbia to that assessment.. The question is why is that the case? Every place is a couple hours from some other place better (at least on the east coast) but that's no reason to down play disparage where you live? I guess it still falls back on to two things we discussed 1) developing some local civic pride 2) better marketing, at a minimum, to residents in SC. It appears that people outside SC have a more favorable opinion though I wonder how many are coming to Columbia for other reasons (i.e. family, football, Graduation, etc) as opposed to coming to Columbia just to come to Columbia. Not saying its a bad thing but I think we need to step up our ground game with locals and SC residents to experience more weekend and day trips in Columbia as a way to turn around opinions?
I watched some of the SC Democratic Convention coverage from the Convention Center on the national networks.. It did portray Columbia in a very positive light.. though some commentators somewhat bashed the State as a whole.
There really isn't anything unique about Columbia relative to the rest of the southeast. It is a midsize city with mid sized attractions. Columbia is good place to live for the most part but not a terribly impressive place to visit if your are from a city of the same size or larger. Columbia has to find that thing that sets it apart from its peers.
There really isn't anything unique about Columbia relative to the rest of the southeast. It is a midsize city with mid sized attractions. Columbia is good place to live for the most part but not a terribly impressive place to visit if your are from a city of the same size or larger. Columbia has to find that thing that sets it apart from its peers.
I imagine outside of the sporting events at USC, the Zoo is the only thing that outsiders would visit Columbia for.
We do have Lake Murray, but there isn't much for tourist to do there. EdVenture? Last time I took my kids seems half the interactive stuff was broken. The State Museum is really impressive, may not attract out of state, but in state I could imagine driving to see it.
I think the best tourism strategy is to focus on being a more livable city and more visitors will follow. For instance, I don't think the focus should be on making downtown a tourist destination, but to make it a more highly functional downtown. That makes it more authentic and hopefully keeps it more inclusive.
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