The benefit and curse of being Washington, DC

+ -- Almost everybody in the world knows the city
- -- Almost everybody in the world thinks they know the city

So they think about Washington they way they want to, not necessarily the way the local cultural heritage community might wish to portray the city.

Right now, around the globe, given the debacle in Iraq and elsewhere, many millions of people aren't predisposed to be favorable, extending their feelings about the U.S. government to our fair city.
Protestors carry an anti-Bush banner during a protest in downtown Copenhagen, Denmark, July 6, 2005. U.S. President George W. Bush visited Denmark on Wednesday ahead of G8 talks in Gleneagles, Scotland. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen.

That's a problem.

So I found this recent AP article, "LA mayor opens tourism office in China," pretty interesting. One, they are marketing the City of Los Angeles to millions of potential tourists. And this is independent of any national tourism efforts (which are pretty abysmal generally, compared to other nations).

This blog, Public Diplomacy Watch and everything Simon Anholt writes, such as Brand America, is relevant to this issue. I would like to subscribe to this journal, Place Branding, but it's too expensive.


It's time for Brand Washington.

Index Keywords: cultural-heritage-tourism