When it comes to tourism, branding is everything.
Once word gets out that an area is a hot spot for wineries, wine aficionados add it to their itineraries. Call yourself the snowboarding capital of the world, and the snowboarders will come.
I was reading this recent story about how the City of Brotherly Love (a title which I think is up for debate) is trying to change what it sees as a perception that the city is too blue collar to draw big-time tourist bucks.
It got me to thinking about what the perceptions are of some local towns...is Gettysburg the country's history capital? Military mecca? Ghost gathering spot?
I don't know about you, but when I hear Hershey, the first two things that come to mind are chocolate and roller coasters.
DC seems like it should be bursting with "look-at-me-and-my cause" politicians and lobbyists, do-gooders and the power-hungry.
What do you think of when someone says York? What about Harrisburg? Lancaster? Baltimore? What do you WISH people thought about your town?
When someone says York I think of air conditioners. When someone says Lancaster I think of Britain because that's where the only city that deserves to be named Lancaster is, just as Paris, Texas is no Paris and Vienna, Virginia is no Vienna. Baltimore I think of crabs.