Think you’ve got a better slogan than “Celebrate and Discover” to describe our fair city? Chances are you do and the D.C. Convention & Tourism Corporation wants to hear it. They’ve launched a new campaign to find out what we Washingtonians think makes the city great. Over at Share Your DC you can take a quick survey asking what you think are the city’s greatest people, places and events along with advice you’d give to travellers from far and wide. Visitors to the site can also upload photos and get e-mail updates on the project.
All this is part of an initiative to create a compelling brand for a city that already hosts 15 million tourists a year. (It’s unclear whether this figure includes the hordes of summer interns that descend on the city as the temperatures rise. We imagine a survey of locals about those visitors would yield very different results.)
The idea that visitors can be lured away from the Mall and its alluring array of over-priced FBI sweatshirts is an ambitious one. Will a family from Sioux City make it to Eastern Market, or dine on Ethiopian food on U Street? We’d like to think so. It may be overly optimistic, but the more people learn about Washington as a city with its own thriving culture and citizenry, the more they’ll spread the word and maybe even tell their Congressmen about some of the 600,000 people they met with absolutely no voting rights.
The tourism corporation is also picking up on a novel idea recently employed by several government agencies: The best way to find out what folks think is to ask them. Last year DCRA circulated a survey about street vendors and the people spoke. They wanted more street eats, and they wanted them now. Soon new licenses became available for all sorts of food carts and in all sorts of neighborhoods. Similarly, the Department of Transportation is currently hosting a survey about new multi-space parking meters.
Will this direct appeal to Washingtonians work? Even though participation won’t result in a tasty cart full ‘o fried food being stationed outside your office, it might be worth the time to ask yourself: What do you love about D.C.?
Photo by Flickr user alex.DC.
