Here we go again.
Tourism board unveils aggressive agenda for drawing visitors. Erin Mulvaney and L.M. Sixel. HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
About once ever two to three years, Houston is hit with a bone-headed proposal of this type in "increase the number of tourists" driven by the ill-thought out idea that we're just not branding our city properly.
The solution has always been 'more money' and, to be honest, it just hasn't worked in the past and there's little reason to believe that it's going to work this time either.
First, the fallacies:
1. Houston is a hidden tourist "gem" that people don't know about because we have an identity as a business city.
It's true. Houston is viewed as a place where people come to get business done. There's a reason for that and it's because Houston is a place where people come to get business done. No amount of branding, or catchy slogans, is going to change that.
2. There are a lot of fun things to do in Houston.
This is also true. But it's only true if you happen to live here. In fact, outside of NASA there are few things in Houston that can't be done better elsewhere. The Kemah Boardwalk? It's a decent place to visit if you live here but if you're thinking about spending your travel dollars Coney Island or (still, despite their financial worries) the Jersey Shore offer much better boardwalks with many more tourist attractions. Galveston? Again, if you live in Houston it's the closest beach area. If you're a tourist however you'd be much better served heading down to either Corpus Christi or South Padre Island. Washington Avenue is a decent bar and entertainment district for locals, but it's not going to ever, ever be a tourist draw. Perhaps the only truly touristy thing that Houston has going for it, outside of Space Center Houston, is the Galleria. And it's hard to convince people to spend a week in town during their vacation walking around the inside of a very large shopping mall.
The fact is that Houston is just not a destination city. It never has been and it never will be, no matter how much money the unelected, quasi-public agency Houston First decides they want to throw down the rabbit hole in an ill-fated effort to convince people otherwise.
I've often thought that the only possible concept that would save the Astrodome is to convert it into a giant hotel/casino. However, casino gambling (and most other gambling besides the State-ran scam that is the lottery) is outlawed in Texas and the Texans and Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo would never agree to a venue that would utilize parking spaces and resources when they're operating so that's a moot point as well. Ironically, it could be casino gambling (or, expanded gambling options at horse and dog tracks) that could, potentially, bring in tourists. However, we live in Texas where the government's main objective seems to be to save us from ourselves while lining their pockets so those ideas are really a non-starter.
Instead, Houston is going to, once again, waste Millions of Dollars in an attempt to make the tourist board feel important, and to try and compete with other cities to which it is not comparable. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it and all of that.
Unsurprisingly, the comments on this pay-walled Chron story are focusing on Downtown (the Central Business District) and public transportation, as if adding a bar or two and building a rail from the airports will be the elixir that cures all ills. It's thoughts like these, and people who say that the Astrodome, Kemah and Galveston induce sprawl, that are why Houston cannot have nice things and why we're doomed to one of Dante's Circles when it comes to visitor planning.
Houston Tourism Planning: Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.
