{"id":4258,"date":"2011-05-17T07:19:08","date_gmt":"2011-05-17T11:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=4258"},"modified":"2011-06-01T09:00:49","modified_gmt":"2011-06-01T13:00:49","slug":"what-does-adirondacks-mean-to-to-potential-tourists-not-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2011\/05\/17\/what-does-adirondacks-mean-to-to-potential-tourists-not-much\/","title":{"rendered":"What does “Adirondacks” mean to to potential tourists? Not much."},"content":{"rendered":"

So let me start this discussion with a bit of a backhanded compliment to our neighbors in Vermont.<\/p>\n

When I drive through many of their gorgeous valleys and quaint communities, I see many of the same problems that we have here in the North Country.<\/p>\n

There are eyesore junkyards, old trailers, dilapidated homes, sagging barns.\u00a0 But here’s the thing:\u00a0 I don’t notice it as much.<\/p>\n

Vermont has marketed and “branded” itself so effectively, that I’m conditioned to focus on the cool stuff:\u00a0 the fall color or the maple buckets on the trees or the white picket fences and old stone store fronts.<\/p>\n

As I report this morning<\/a>, the Adirondacks has never quite managed this feat.\u00a0 Unlike other national-caliber tourist destinations, we haven’t packaged ourselves very effectively.<\/p>\n

Even though Lake Placid is a globally known village, the rest of the Park doesn’t register in people’s imaginations.<\/p>\n

Before I moved to the North Country, I thought “Adirondack” was a kind of chair.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Vermont is a brand and a lifestyle option almost as much as a real place.\u00a0 So is Hawaii.\u00a0 So is New Orleans.<\/p>\n

Visitors are enticed to go there not by a laundry list of possible things to do, but by an overall impression, a concept.<\/p>\n

It’s the same reason that a lot of people choose the Gap over other clothing stores.\u00a0 They’re not just buying blue jeans or a tee-shirt.\u00a0 They’re buying into a pre-packaged narrative about the experience.<\/p>\n

In a way, it’s kind of cool that the Adirondacks has avoided this kind of Madison Avenue messaging.\u00a0 This may be one of the few A-list places in America that people really can discover for themselves.<\/p>\n

But unfortunately, a lot of potential visitors don’t even know enough about us to begin that journey.\u00a0 They don’t know that there’s something here worth exploring.<\/p>\n

So it’s kind of a Catch-22.\u00a0 We’re authentic in part because we’re undefined.\u00a0 But because we’re undefined, we’re also undiscovered.<\/p>\n

Which means that a lot of our tourism businesses struggle, especially in the interminable “off” seasons.<\/p>\n

Is it possible to market the Adirondacks differently, so that this place becomes as concrete a brand as, say, the Colorado Rockies or Maine?\u00a0\u00a0 If so, what would that brand look like?<\/p>\n

Or should we stick with the grassroots, muddled, down-home approach?\u00a0 As always, your comments welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So let me start this discussion with a bit of a backhanded compliment to our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[10],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4258"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}