“Almost overnight, Cincinnati has been receiving unprecedented acclaim,” writes Janelle Gelfand in Friday’s (2/23) Cincinnati Business Courier. “Multiple articles in the New York Times, Travel and Leisure and others tout Cincinnati as one of the nation’s top destinations…. All … mention ‘arts’ as a top reason to visit…. ArtsWave, a nonprofit … has been part of a new initiative to market Cincinnati’s arts nationally for the past two years…. For budgetary reasons, [Cincinnati USA Regional Tourism Network] had only focused on cultural tourism in the summer months, when the arts were mostly not in business… ‘That astonished me,’ said [ArtsWave president and CEO Alecia] Kintner…. Officials had never leveraged the city’s arts, including a world-renowned Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the nation’s second-oldest opera company, an acclaimed ballet company, a booming theater scene and museums that include the Zaha Hadid-designed Contemporary Arts Center. The solution: Regional Tourism Network provided a half-million dollars that was matched by ArtsWave to co-create the region’s first arts marketing campaign outside of a 100-mile radius…. Arts audiences across the region increased 3 percent…. ‘People want to come here for the arts,’ said Julie Calvert, executive director of Source Cincinnati, which promotes the city to national media.”
Posted February 28, 2018
