Big Cities Constantly Prime Themselves for Tourists
April 17, 2007. Luxury vacation rentals can be found everywhere, from the smallest towns to the biggest cities. When it comes to vacations, people seem to embrace both choices. As a result, one can find competition for tourism dollars virtually anywhere.
The Chicago Tribune ran a story this weekend about the efforts on behalf of big cities to attract visitors. With the summer vacation season approaching, metropolitan areas are rushing to repair, beautify and advertise. The article focused on five of the biggest: New York, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.
Talk about an advertising budget – New York City will spend $30 million across the globe. The return on investment generally falls in the ball park of $24 billion in spending per year. This year, the City That Never Sleeps expects 44 million visitors, and wants to bring in 50 million by 2015.
Miami's numbers aren't shabby – it spends about $12 million and attracts less than 12 million visitors. But then again, Miami seems concerned with its own image, rather than trying to chase NYC.
"We try to position Miami like Gucci, Fendi, Prada or Mercedes-Benz," said David Whitaker, executive vice president of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau.
L.A., San Francisco and Chicago spend similar amounts of money and draw similarly large crowds, and for good reason. We could spend months in a luxury vacation rental in these great cities, exploring all the nooks and crannies.
In fairness to the little guys, however, we'll look at some equally exciting small towns in tomorrow's blog.
