The marketing agency that has promoted “DC Cool” for the past five years now wants visitors to “discover the real D.C.”—or at least Ben’s Chili Bowl and Chuck Brown.

Destination DC unveiled a new ad campaign Tuesday aimed at potential visitors with the promise that this city is not just a political cesspool.

“When you mention Washington, the first thing people mention is politics. There’s a whole world that people are not familiar with,” voices artist Aniekan Udofia, the artist behind the Ben’s mural, in a new campaign video that highlights the half-smoke staple and musical icon among unnamed local cultural and dining options. “We who live here we know it has this vibration that spreads. There’s a culture here. There’s art. There’s entertainment.”

Destination DC also announced Tuesday that 2017 marked the eighth year of consecutive growth in tourism—the city saw 20.8 million domestic visitors, an increase of 4.2 percent, and 2 million foreign travelers, an increase of 2.5 percent. The organization estimates that tourism pumped $7.5 billion into the District’s economy last year.

But marketers believe that their best bet for attracting international tourists is to downplay the city’s connections to the federal government we house (global approval of U.S. leadership hit a historic low earlier this year).

“While we were thrilled to see growth in overseas visitation, we are faced with certain realities about the political climate and how the U.S. is perceived from a global perspective,” said Destination DC president Elliott Ferguson in a release. “That’s why we’re doing everything we can to welcome the global community and increase our representation internationally in established and emerging markets.”

Hence “discover the real D.C.” (under the banner of DC Cool, Destination DC has also previously promoted #WeGotThis as a campaign tagline and put out D.C.-specific emojis.)

Still, the city’s boutique hotels have already been luring guests with the promise of living like a local for some time.

“Travelers are much more savvy these days, and they’re smart enough to know they don’t want the same thing in every city … You want something unique to that city, and you want to be able to live like a local,” Josh Runes of Modus Hotels, a D.C.-based hotel company, told DCist last year. Newcomer to the District, Eaton D.C. is going even further, marketing itself as both a hip hotel and incubator for local artists and activists.

Is now the time to mention that the real D.C. comes with the good and the bad—Metro mayhem, the summer swamp, and unprovoked rat rodents, among them?

Previously:
D.C.’s New Crop Of Boutique Hotels Are Letting Tourists Live Like Locals
D.C. Tourism Gets A Commercial And A New Slogan: #WeGotThis
Forbes Names D.C. Coolest City, So Naturally Everyone Is Making Fun Of Us
‘D.C. Cool’ Campaign Launches To Make City Seem More Hip To Tourists