Don't Go There!

My friend Peter Greenberg's new book drops today...and "Don't Go There" is sure to rankle Destination Marketing Pros everywhere.

The description from his website: We’ve all suffered through bad vacations: tourist traps, terrible package deals, high-rise hotels, revolting food, and the worst airports on earth. The world abounds in dismal destinations, and it’s just as important to know the hellholes to avoid as it is to be familiar with the most idyllic spots (especially when some of these idyllic places don’t deserve their reputations!).

And, there is a companion website where consumers can blast away at destinations, hotels, restaurants and attractions...anonymously, of course.

Just one more site to which Destination Marketers need to subscribe to the RSS feed...

Thanks to Fargo-Moorhead's Cole Carley for the catch...

Comments

[Samantha Fryberger]

Cleveland appears in Peter Greenberg's book. Mr. Greenberg has said in presentations that he likes Cleveland and has been here. However, reading the entry on our city, you'd never know it. Cleveland appears in the chapter on dangerous destinations.

If you lived in another city like New York, Washington, DC, Los Angeles or Chicago before you came to Cleveland, I’m pretty sure you’d surprised to find out Mr. Greenberg portrays this Midwestern city’s danger potential to be higher than any of these cities, some of which don’t even make the list. While there is crime in every city and all travelers should never take unnecessary risks, Cleveland as a city feels safer than most—especially its more traveled areas like the many museums of University Circle, the eateries and galleries of neighborhoods like Tremont and Little Italy and the clubs and fine dining of the Warehouse District . . . all of which Mr. Greenberg neglected to mention in his book. In fact, the book makes it seem like the House of Blues and the Rock Hall are our the city's only notable attractions. I'm sure the Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and PlayhouseSquare and many other of Cleveland's gems would disagree.

In truth, recent statistics show crime is in decline here in Cleveland. I could go on and on about our wealth of attractions and our safety initiatives like the Downtown Cleveland Ambassadors program instituted in 2006 to give the downtown a street team of visible ambassadors who clean, offer help with directions and provide free safety escort services. However, what I think is most important here is the disservice generalizations like this do to a destination.

No matter what I say, I am sure I could be dismissed as an overly defensive DMO representative. That's why I am instead choosing to point to the opinion of a Clevelander who is not affiliated with Positively Cleveland in any way. I think she explains best here: http://snipurl.com/5y1xi.

[Bill Geist]

Snarkiness Sells. It also gets authors lots of face/voice time on the talk show circuit.

I like Peter, but I'm really not sure why he chose to go this route (other than the visibility builder this kinda book is). I think he's better than that.

And Cleveland is DEFINITELY NOT on my Top Ten List. If anything, it's in my Top Ten faves category. ;)

[Samantha Fryberger]

Thanks, Bill! (You're in our favs too.) Good news--which we're forwarding to Peter--the new crime stats came out and the city is not in the top 10 for crime and the MSA falls all the way down at 100. So, it's not just Positively Cleveland saying this . . . we've got statistics.
http://os.cqpress.com/citycrime/MetroCrime2008_Rank_Rev.pdf

[Escorts in Leeds]

That books seems very interesting, I should buy that book and find out the places I shouldn't visit. :)