Posted on 10/22/2007 4:43:10 AM PDT by xtinct
Looking for good ethnic food? Sample San Antonio. Attractive people? Head to Minneapolis. A romantic escape? Try Santa Fe.
They may not be the most obvious choices, but lately they have all out-ranked Boston.
Once deemed the most European city in America and routinely ranked as a top travel destination, Boston's place in the minds of travelers has been eclipsed by up-and-coming cities in recent years. When Travel + Leisure rated the best cities in North America earlier this year, Boston wasn't even on the list.
Condé Nast Traveler's "Reader's Choice Award" this week put Boston at No. 10, a hard fall after reigning at the top of the list with cities like New York and San Francisco during the 1990s. Now, it comes in behind cities like Charleston, S.C., Santa Fe, and Savannah, Ga.
It's not that tourists aren't coming to Boston. In fact, more come each year, with 18.8 million visiting in 2006, according to the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau. But around the country, it seems that some of the luster has worn off.
"Boston's had an image problem," said Linda L. Lowry, an associate professor of tourism and hospitality at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. "The Big Dig hasn't helped. . . . Hotel prices have gone up and up."
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
No kidding !!! ...
1. High crime daily in three neighborhoods of Boston: Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury (Dodging bullets is not fun.)
But Mayor *Mumbles* Menino states: "the city doesn't deserve the bum rap"
It does!!!
And contrary to what these liberal Yankees think here is another good reason for the drop in tourism - the smoking ban !!!
Liberal freaks don't get the connection between banning adult entertainment (drinking and smoking in bars).
e.g. Family of 4 has a smoker. In spite of the nasty little habit, the smoker's family loves him/her anyway. So, the family is going to go on vacation someplace other than MA so the smoker is comfortable and can relax if he/she chooses to do so with a cigarette, pipe, or cigar.
e.g. 21, 22 year old college students and other young people ... social smoking mostly but they frequent nightclubs... Boston's nightclubs are mediocre according to the article above... reason: all the fun people like to drink and smoke socially... they create excitement... none of the anal retentive, stick up their behinds' liberals would know about that... Young adult entertainment has most likely gone underground to private parties, etc. (The college students did bitch about the ban... so the nitwits in charge here can't say they didn't see it coming.)
Now they're are planning to build casinos. I predict a collosal failure in the making due to the fact that our nitwit governor is proposing to ban smoking.
Common sense isn't a strength here in MA as evidenced by the Big Dig and half of the Mom and Pop bars and restaurants that have closed due to the smoking bans.
Can't wait to get transferred to a Red State...lol
Been to Boston.Once.Have no desire to return.Except for New York,Boston has some of the rudest people on the east coast.
Dirty city, sloppy drivers, boring night-life, drunken college kids puking in gutter/sidewalk, copycat (of New York)’style’, overwhelmed by their own ‘brilliance’, attitude that earns them the nickname of mASS-holes.....what’s not to like about Boston?
Convention business isn’t “tourism” despite what this article claims.
They are coming to a city for the EVENT and not for the city. Cities court some convention business in competition with other cities.
One of the things Houston has done in such courting is to PERMIT smoking in our convention center even though we have a smoking ban at private businesses that was never put to a public referendum.
I guess you have to ban smoking to be a “world class” city (as they’ve claimed with this legislation) but you need to permit smoking to draw world class travellers.
A professor of WHAT????
Is someone telling me that "Animal House" Zoo Mass Amherst gives or recognizes Advanced Degrees in...Tourism and Hospitality?
Is that what it said??
I must have misread it.
There is nothing wrong with Massachusetts, either.
I really like going up to Boston once in a while. Fortunately for me, it’s only about a 2 hour trip away. I absolutely love walking around Beacon Hill and Back Bay neighborhoods, checking out the shops and cafes, sitting on a bench and relaxing in Public Garden, and having a picnic along the banks of the Charles River watching the sailboats on a nice warm day.
Listen,you %$&@%&*!
Isn’t it also a bit of a GayHaven?
I went to Boston last November with my sweet Anne, who is a former resident of East Boston.
We paid a fortune for a room in a crappy Holiday Inn near the airport. We saved a ton on cabs since my Anne knew the ins-and-outs of their subway.
Fanuel Hall- a bunch of kiosks like you’d find in most malls, for the real thing, go to Seattle and visit Pike Market.
We did enjoy taking a ride on the Duck.
The panhandlers were a pain in the butt.
The seafood was great, again my Anne, got us away from the pricey North Beach bistros and we visited the local places with great menus and better prices.
Boston’s great. I drive through it on the way to Boston College games. (It’s not in Boston it’s in Chesnut Hill). Then I drive back home. No reason to stop though.
The last jamocke that cracked wise about Boston got wacked in the mouff. Betta’ not show your mug in Somma’ville or Meffa.
(Translation for the Boston impaired: The last fellow that made comments about Boston got punched in teh mouth. Please do not show your face around Somerville or Medford, for that matter. Thank you.) And remember, in Boston, triple parking is allowed if no double parking is available.
“Isn’t it also a bit of a GayHaven?”
Not as much as you would think. There are a couple of areas. Cambridge is pretty gay.
When I moved away from Boston after surviving the unfriendly people, horrible drivers and miserable weather I literally cried for joy.
Not for nothing, but not one of those neighborhoods would attract a single tourist. Okay, maybe a lost tourist. Nobody's going to Dorchester, Mattapan, or Roxbury to soak up the city.
You people from New Hampshire really beat this to death.
AND NO HOWIE CARR ON THE RADIO!!!!!!!!!
North Beach?
We were so happy you left that we threw a huge party. It was really fun.
"Boston's had an image problem," said Linda L. Lowry...
Gee ya think?
and..
Okay, just kidding above - it's really the Language Barrier. They talk funny up there.
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