July 2007

BRONZEVILLE HERITAGE TOURISM DELEGATION ATTENDS
International Heritage Development Conference in Detroit

Big ups, kudos and thank you to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and Quad Community Development Corporation (QCDC) for underwriting a FAM trip for a delegation of 11 cultural heritage tourism development professionals representing the historic Bronzeville community to attend the International Heritage Development Conference Alliance of National Heritage Areas in Detroit, Michigan from Sunday, June 17th through Thursday, June 21, 2007.

The Bronzeville tourism development delegation included Paula Robinson - Marketing Director for the Bronzeville Visitor Information Center, Leroy Kennedy - Vice President of Community Affairs and Outreach Programs for IIT, Christine Perkins - Executive Director of Inner City Youth Foundation, Cassandra Houston - Project Manager of Government & Community Relations Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority, Cheryl Colbert - Tour Coordinator for the Bronzeville Visitor Information Center (BVIC), Bobbi Johnson - President and Founder of Race to Knowledge, Lyn Hughes - Founder of the A. Phillip Randolph Museum Gallery, Norman Montgomery - Network Analyst for BVIC, Beverly Cooley-Montgomery - Technology Trainer for the BVIC, Therese Ferguson - Program Manager BVIC and Harold L. Lucas - President/CEO Black Metropolis Convention & Tourism Council (BMC&TC).

"For over 20 years, the heritage development movement has grown from a vague and imprecise concept to a genuine and commanding national model for conserving and preserving our national heritage. Heritage areas span a wide spectrum of community-based activities. They can range from singular endeavors to save a regional historical asset to comprehensive approaches to regional conservation, preservation, tourism and economic revitalization. Heritage development projects can be made up of a cluster of neighborhoods, or they can be multi-jurisdictional, crossing the boundaries of counties, regions and even states," stated John W. Cosgrove - Vice President, Heritage Development Partnership, Inc..

The International Heritage Development Conference program, titled Passport to Crossing Boundaries, was an exciting five days of intensely collaborative workshops, pre-and post conference tours, regional labs and grand receptions that educated those in attendance to the importance of heritage tourism as a growth industry and revenue/wealth creation initiative.The Bronzeville delegation experienced great places, great stories, great ideas and great people from all over the world, while absorbing the hospitality of the great city of Detroit Michigan.

"For most people, "travel' is synonymous with "fun" - but it's also a huge business and a powerful economic engine. According to the Travel Industry Association (TIA), travel and tourism in the United States is a $1.3 trillion industry that employs about 7.5 million people (that translates to roughly one of every eight non farm jobs in this country, creates a total annual payroll of $171.4 billion, and generates almost $105 billion on local, state, and federal tax revenues" proclaimed Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

In a 2007 poll, TIA asked travelers what constitutes an ideal vacation destination, and "local flavor" ranked high on the list of responses. This helps explain why heritage tourism - visiting historic, cultural and natural attractions that tell authentic stories of the past - is such a big and growing component of the travel industry.

In conclusion, heritage tourism - broadly defined as any personal travel that includes historical or cultural activities - is often the best way to attract visitors to an otherwise improbable tourist destination. (With 81% of U.S. tourists categorized by the Travel Industry Association as "cultural heritage travelers" you've probably been a heritage tourist without realizing it!). "Black Metropolis Convention & Tourism Council (BMC&TC) chose this focus a decade ago because things developed for heritage tourists and urban preservationists can also be enjoyed by local residents. The Bronzeville/Black Metropolis Historic District geographic service area does not have to be disenfranchised and drained of its local resources as an emerging inner city neighborhood. Bronzeville residents, please be cautious of well-connected outside developers boasting about major condominium development mixed use projects on the South State Street corridor or an overpriced Olympic stadium in Washington Park, that has the potential of displacing most lower income indigenous residents currently residing in the our historically significant African American community of Chicago." says Harold L. Lucas President/CEO BMC&TC.

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WHAT'S PAST IS TRAVELOGUE
Trust program uses heritage to encourage tourism

BY KRISTA WALTON, Your Trust, from Preservation Magazine

When students at Whitwell Middle School began collecting six million paperclips to commemorate the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, they had no idea that their efforts would receive worldwide attention. Soon after their Children's Holocaust Memorial began in 1998, tourists came in droves to the Tennessee school—an unanticipated result of the frenzy of media coverage the project received.

"Nobody there knew how to handle press or put out information for visitors," says Susan Goldblatt, director of the Southeast Tennessee Tourism Association. "Here was this site of national interest, and nobody promoting or organizing it."

In fact, until 2002, when a local official suggested tourism as a way to boost the region's economy, southeast Tennessee had no visitors program at all. When the tourism association was finally founded, officials opted to promote the area's heritage, enlisting a consultant from the Trust's Heritage Tourism Program to guide them through the process.

Heritage tourism—broadly defined as any personal travel that includes historical or cultural activities—is often the best way to attract visitors to an otherwise improbable tourist destination. (With 81 percent of U.S. tourists categorized by the Travel Industry Association as "cultural heritage travelers," you've probably been a heritage tourist without realizing it.) "We chose this focus because things developed for heritage tourists can also be enjoyed by local residents," says Goldblatt. "They don't have to be a drain on the community like a theme park or major development."

With help from the Trust's program, residents in 10 counties worked together to identify cultural sites for "heritage trails"—routes linking thematically similar historic sites. "We held a lot of local meetings, and people were really inspired," Goldblatt says. "Everybody was looking at their own community and saying, ‘What do we have here? How can we make it more accessible?' "

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MAJOR TAYLOR TRAIL GRAND OPENING

Harold Lucas, right in photo participated in the grand opening of the Major Taylor trail,in the historic Morgan Park community along with riders from the Pullman, Roseland and Beverly communities. The Major Taylor trail wall mural located at 111th & Morgan is viewed in the background.

The May 19 Major Taylor Trail official grand opening has been postponed to National Trails Day - June 2 - at 10:00 a.m. This significant addition to the area's trail network will be marked on the day

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ALDERMAN PAT DOWELL HOSTS 3RD WARD TOWN HALL

Newly elected 3rd Ward Alderman, Patricia Dowell, (standing at right in picture) exchanges dialogues with her constituents during the first in a series of 3rd Ward Town Hall meetings. The 1st Aldermanic sponsored 3rd Ward Town Hall meeting took place on Tuesday June 26, 2007 at the Fuller Park Fieldhouse on 45th & Princeton from 6:30 to 8:00 PM.

To attend a town hall meeting, please view the schedule (PDF) or download the image below: