Local residents can market to tourists

I've put up links to some cities which are using music to brand themselves. Often location-based branding is done by marketing specialists who refine a city's image to pitch to the tourist market.

But this approach begins at the grassroots level. Citizens are being asked what they think makes their hometowns special. It combines oral history with tourism marketing. Certainly the concept could be extended to local music venues and why people should check them out. (A variation that is already being done are the many "Best of" city guides that alternative weeklies put out on an annual basis.)

Commercial Dispatch Online, 2/9/07: "Sharing stories of people and places is what Mississippians do well, and it's what will move this corner of the state into a new wave of cultural tourism, as a whole generation of retired baby-boomers with time on their hands and pension checks in their pockets begin weekend drives looking for life beyond the strip-mall.

The Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Alliance, a tourism cooperative made up of 30 counties in the northeast corner of the state is set to begin gathering data on topics like history, culture, nature outdoor recreation and just about any other topic residents believe is necessary to tell the heritage history of their town.

'Each place has a little bit of a different feel,' said Darienne Wilson Mobley, principal of Creative Solutions, a Baton Rouge, La., tourism consultant.

'I call it your soul - what is your sense of place,' Mobley added, speaking Thursday morning at Mississippi State University, as MHHAA made a series of stops in northeast Mississippi to meet with local tourism leaders, elected officials and others in the industry to introduce MHHAA's new Web site, where soon anyone will be able to get online."

tourism