Speaking of promoting tourism in DC

I wrote about this last week, in "Creating Brand Washington."

I forgot to mention that most "states" have annual tourism conferences, where the various sectors of the tourism field come together to assess and plan for the coming year. Representatives from destination marketing organizations, government attractions, hospitality organizations, attractions, and other organizations attend.

DC doesn't produce such a conference. Maryland and Virginia do...

For another take, see this article from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, about the Governor's speech at the Hawai'i Tourism conference: "Refocus tourism, Lingle says." From the article:

Hawaii's key visitor industry needs to rethink the face it shows to the world, not just build new attractions, if it wants to compete in an increasingly global marketplace, Gov. Linda Lingle told attendees yesterday at the annual Hawaii Tourism Conference. "We aren't an amusement park ..." she said. "We are the most unique state in America."

To keep its share of visitors, Lingle and other speakers told members of Hawaii's visitor industry to reinvest in programs that offer visitors an authentic island experience. In addition, isle tourism must diversify by cultivating visitors from new source markets like Korea and China, they said.

This is "merely" about focusing on your competitive advantages...