Boston Tourism Rating Falls

Boston, although officially still recognized as a 6 point (of 12) World City by GaWC , but as a destination we are losing ground to other destinations in North America. Once rated up there with New York and San Francisco as prime vacation destinations, Condé Nast traveler and Travel+ Leisure have both recently relegated Boston to the obscurity of a minor city.

Let’s be fair to admit that Boston’s cultural attractions do not bow to any in America. With world class museums, heritage sights, and universities, Boston will always remain the historical destination. With a Market town patchwork of streets and alleys, Boston is one of the few American cities that is authentically pedestrian. Restaurants abound in all downtown neighborhoods and with the ocean on its doorfront, seafood reigns. Sports in Boston also reign. Fenway Park is the oldest Major league stadium in the nation and is itself a museum. With gorgeous parks, an urban river and the harbor, the city is no doubt a beautiful place.

But the ratings have dropped? That’s no surprise. What would Americans these days see in Boston? Travel and Leisure kowtows to luxurious details, mostly in hotel interiors and fashionable dining experiences, but does not pay any homage to the culturally significant. In their eyes, the hotel equals the experience. For any sensible tourist or sightseer, the only worthwhile time in a hotel is for sleeping. True, in a world always spinning, many tourists seek rest and relaxation above experience, and Boston is not for them. Boston must be met with a pair of walking shoes, a healthy appetite for hearty seafood and thirst for Sam Adams or Harpoon.

Boston is not a fashionable place, and most of its worthwhile bars are miles away from downtown. Boston is not a place where high-brand nightlife is measured nor should it. It is safe to say that Boston’s people are not the most attractive. Boston is not Vegas and should never pretend to be, nor try to compete. Just the same, Vegas is not Boston. Measuring a city’s cultural value has been degraded in recent years with a culture obsessed with the trivial and indulgent on throw-away experiences. A city with a diverse historical context, steeped in traditions (gradually being washed into the American mainstream), and its automobile-unfriendly nature makes Boston not immediately accessible for most people. It’s a more sumptuous locale, comparing organic food to McDonalds. People looking for the instant gratification of tasty condiments should seek alternate destinations.

Another complaint is from expensive hotel costs and unfriendliness. With a limited area of downtown, it is no doubt Boston’s downtown hotels; in Copley Square, Financial District, or in Cambridgeside, are expensive. But you will find this in every worthwhile city. Take a look at an average Manhattan hotel. New York is not only known for being expensive, but its people are some of the most insulting rude and obnoxious outside of Paris. In my experience, however, the people in Boston who are most revolting to outsiders are usually outsiders themselves, living and working in Boston for the experience. Once they ingratiate themselves with the subway and their immediate neighborhood, they wear these on their sleeves and are automatically angered when they are inconvenienced by tourists’ directions or slowing down to admire the buildings they are living in. These people are snobbish to locals and worse to tourists, and are mostly responsible for local neighborhoods losing their cultural identities. These people must be ignored. (But unfortunately it is the transplants that continually bring money into Boston and keep the city’s economy healthy.)

The numbers of tourists that continually flock to Boston each spring, summer and fall are a testament that Boston still can hang with other hyped tourist traps. Boston sure has some of the worst tourist traps in the country; the Fanueil Hall marketplace is perhaps the worst of all, but it remains one of few. Sure Boston’s nightclub scene suffers, but that will never (hopefully) be the appeal of the nighttime entertainment in Boston where our drinks are served in pubs. I still can’t believe that attractiveness of the cities inhabitants is even rated. Point ceded. Boston is not LA, Vegas or Miami. There are more hot chicks in those cities. Travel + Leisure once again missed the boat. When is that magazine going to float?

http://www.boston.com/travel/boston/articles/2007/10/22/losing_stature/