IS IT TRUE? June 3-5, 2011 “Evansville as a World-Class Destination”????

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IS IT TRUE? June 3-5, 2011 “Evansville as a World-Class Destination”????

IS IT TRUE that Bob Warren, the replacement for Marilee Harris as the Executive Director at the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau made some eyes roll with his statement that Evansville is just a good marketing campaign away from being a “WORLD-CLASS DESTINATION”?…that as much as his enthusiasm is to be admired for his new job, attaining world class status on the banks of the Ohio River here in Evansville is quite a stretch?…that three things that articles on this subject agree on is that world class destinations have recognized world class attractions, world class airports, and five star hotels?…that Evansville is pushing it to even claim to have 3-Star hotels away from Casino Aztar and is currently in a quagmire to find a local contractor the financing to build a 3-Star downtown convention hotel?

IS IT TRUE that job one for Mr. Warren to have any credibility with his forthcoming marketing campaign is to figure out where it is that people who spend money on world class vacations would choose to sleep when they visit?…that such people prefer 5-Star hotels and will occasionally opt for a 4-Star property if the quality is really up there?…that we not only do not have these things but we no longer have any plan to get one?…that Casino Aztar would not be a frequent choice for vacationing families so scratch upgrading Le Merigot with a family friendly pool and spa to get that 4th Star?…that this is a big obstacle to overcome in the quest to become recognized by outsiders as a world class tourist destination?

IS IT TRUE that the second thing that makes a city a world class tourist destination is having world class attractions and activities?…that things in America that many people from Evansville have travelled to experience that are universally recognized as world class are the Disney Parks, Sea World, Navy Pier, Times Square, the Smithsonian, Universal Studios, the Getty Museum, the San Diego and St. Louis Zoos, Las Vegas, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium?…that natural world class attractions in America are things like the Grand Canyon, the Tetons, Yosemite, the Rocky Mountains, Waikiki Beach, and Yellowstone?…that among American cites the list that makes the top of World Class Tourist Destinations are New York City, Orlando, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Antonio, Boston, Chicago, and Washington DC?…that all world class destinations have world class air service and that we are saying no more about that in this IS IT TRUE?

IS IT TRUE that in a survey of what attracts people to Evansville today the leading vote getters are in order from top to bottom Casino Aztar (40%), Festivals (17%), shopping on the Eastside (12%), sporting events (11%), universities (10%), restaurants (3%) , the LST (3%), and museums (0%)?…that we assume that festivals means the Fall Festival?…that of the things on that list only the LST and the Fall Festival are unique to Evansville?…that world class also comes with that distinction of uniqueness and that those are the only things that we currently have to build on?…that we are nationally recognized with number one rankings in only two things and that those things are suicide and obesity?…that these are not things that we recommend for the marketing campaign?…that they do show up fairly early in a Google search?

IS IT TRUE that we truly wish good fortune and success to Mr. Warren?…that we will be pleased and praise him if his efforts lead to an Evansville that can actually keep the people that live here from travelling to other regional cities for festivals, sports, museums, shopping, restaurants, and live entertainment?…that it will take a Herculean effort on his part to accomplish the simple goal of being a REGIONAL CLASS TOURIST DESTINATION?

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7 COMMENTS

  1. Just a sign of the times…

    -Obama just gave a speech in Ohio, mentioning spending, responsibly. (Wouldn’t responsible spending require a thing called a budget?)
    -Moody’s just warned that the US might be downgraded, didn’t hear that in the speech. Just talk about jobs.
    -Representative Weiner said the other day he couldn’t say for sure if that tweeted picture was him or not. (Wouldn’t any random high schooler doing the same thing, likely be in jail by now?)
    -John Edwards just plead not guilty.
    -Media reported that Palin was violating federal law with her use of the flag on her bus.
    -Has anybody checked to see if Reicken made it back from Urbana yet?
    -Washington Times just reported 77,000 federal employees that make more than governors.
    -The Indy 500 winner is unemployed.
    -The Patriot Act extension was just signed, by a machine.
    -Obama signed in the Westminster Abbey guest book and dated it, 2008.
    -Obama told us the Lybia military engagement doesn’t require following the war powers act.
    -Recently a Michigan multi-million dollar lottery winner was found to still be receiving food stamps. “If you’re going to… try to make me feel bad, you aren’t going to do it,” he said in reply.

    • Thank you. It crossed the line from clever to obnoxious a long time ago.

  4. NEWSHEARLD.COM

    Warren: Hilton wanted me gone
    By Ed Offley
    2007-05-09 06:31:00

    PANAMA CITY BEACH Bob Warren said he knew his days were numbered as executive director of the Bay County Tourist Development Council when an encounter with businessman Charles Hilton in early March unexpectedly turned ugly.

    Several hundred local business leaders and government representatives were at a monthly social meeting at the private Econfina Club near State 20 in northern Bay County when Warren said he approached Hilton late in the evening to say hello. Warren said Hilton, well known for his bluntness in public, raised his voice and announced, “Mr. Warren, you need to pack your (expletive) bags; your ass is out of here.”

    Hilton on Tuesday confirmed he made remarks along those lines to Warren at the Econfina Club gathering, although he said he did not recall the exact phrasing. “I was eating,” Hilton said. “Mr. Warren joined me at the table, and I said, ‘Bob, why don’t you leave the (TDC) board alone on the 4-cent (bed tax)?’ He said, ‘I know what’s best’ or something like that.” “I may have said that,” Hilton added of the alleged “pack your … bags” remarks. “I said (to Warren) in previous occasions, ‘If you don’t follow the will of the board, you may as well pack your bags.’” Hilton added he’s supported Warren in the past. “I protected him. If I’d have been in charge, I would have run his ass off a long time ago.”

    Increasing strains

    Tuesday’s vote came after several months of increasing strains between Warren and the TDC board over how best to expand and improve tourism in the area. The TDC, which receives both private and public funding to manage a $3.3 million marketing and advertising budget for area tourism, is constituted as a local governing agency and is subject to the Florida Sunshine Law and other legal restrictions on the behavior of its officers and directors. The overarching issue behind the firing, Warren and several critics of the TDC board said Tuesday, is that through his powerful political influence, Hilton has come to pack the TDC board with directors loyal to his corporate interests and not necessarily to the interests of the tourism industry and the larger community.

    Freed of the need to exercise personal diplomacy, Warren blasted Hilton verbally over the entire issue. “I came here to serve the entire (tourism) industry, not to serve special interests,” Warren said in an interview Tuesday afternoon. “Mr. Hilton controls 4 percent of an industry and he’s used his political interests to gain majority control over the TDC, and he controls 100 percent of what the TDC does.” Warren said Hilton and his loyalists on the TDC board of directors have adamantly opposed any consideration of seeking a bed tax increase from 3 to 4 percent, and have likewise opposed efforts to encourage development of a major convention center to serve the Beach tourism market.

    Hilton also has publicly called on the TDC to fight the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service over its demands that the beachfront community enact a lighting ordinance to protect hatchlings when they emerge from their nests on the beach. He also instructed Warren personally to fire the TDC’s advertising agency of record, a point that Warren said he resisted. “I told him that firing our agency of record would be a big problem,” Warren said.

    Tensions within the TDC further intensified near the opening of college Spring Break when a new group of resort owners and managers announced a campaign to transform the spring tourism market from college-age youths to families with children. Critics of the pro-college Spring Break majority on the TDC board cast the dispute in terms of conflicting visions for future tourism. “We have two camps … a split and a divide,” Resort Collection marketing Vice President Paul Wohlford told The News Herald in March. “One camp wants to cling to and embrace ‘Kid Spring Break’ catering to high school and college kids, while the other camp wants to cater to family Spring Break as well as bringing meetings and conventions into the area.”

    Warren described it in more stark terms: “He gives all the marching orders,” Warren said of Hilton. “The man had the capability. He loaded the gun, he pointed the gun, and his majority on the board pulled the trigger.” Those supporting the firing of Warren argued at one point Tuesday that he had been working with the family tourism advocacy group, which recently renamed itself the “Pro Family Spring Break Coalition,” thus creating a conflict with his responsibilities to carry out the TDC board’s wishes.

    Cody Khan, a TDC board member who is a vice president at Hilton’s Paradise Found hotel operation, said Warren “lost my vote” when he gave a talk to the Bay County Chamber of Commerce on May 4 that seemed to endorse the 4-cent bed tax. Warren responded sharply to that criticism. “Part of my job has been to facilitate tasks set by the board, but I also have a job of leadership” within the local tourism industry and business community, he said. Warren also accused pro-Hilton forces of discussing public business in private. He said that on at least a half-dozen occasions he was meeting with Khan when other board members would arrive. “I would just get up and walk out,” Warren said.

    Kahn, reached for comment later Tuesday, said accusations of violating the Sunshine Law, which restricts public boards from conducting official business in private, are “completely false, and nothing can be further from the truth.” “I openly acknowledge that in our small community, I have private and public contact with TDC members, but that does not mean that I have violated the Sunshine Law,” Kahn said. “It has always been my understanding, and I have been advised by legal counsel, that it is not a violation of the Sunshine Law for me to socialize and do other business with members of the TDC so long as we do not discuss TDC business. “I have no way of knowing what Mr. Warren claims he saw; all I know is that I did not violate the law.”

    Warren said his termination without public input or notice was indicative of public business being discussed in private. “Anybody who viewed this meeting could see without a question that this was orchestrated before the meeting and had been planned,” Warren said. “I’ve been fired today because one man wanted me gone.”

    Kahn disputed Warren’s assertion. “He (Warren) was terminated from his job for insubordination and failing to do as the TDC board instructed. He is being vindictive towards myself and others as a result of this termination of employment.”

    • Standing up to a strongman with an agenda who uses his power to intimidate public boards is actually a feather in Mr. Warren’s cap in my opinion.

      Isn’t standing up to bullies on public boards what got Marilee Fowler, the former heads of GAGE, CMOE, Wesselman Wood’s, etc. dismissed right here in Evansville? Evansville is world class in the use bully tactics by a few power brokers. Panama City does not have a chance against Evansville when it comes to running good people off to appease a narcissist or two.

      This poor man won’t last a year in this job if he has both a brain and a backbone.

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