In his piece, he discussed the relative homogeneity that plagues many destinations around the world, and he warns us to avoid that pitfall. For example, if you look a consumer travel magazines or travel trade industry magazines, the attributes that many destinations tout are indeed largely interchangeable.

Leif’s bold idea is to offer free public transportation for all residents and visitors. Leif states that “we would need to offer free public transportation to everyone in order to create a notably unique, destination-defining enticement that people would mention in the same breath as Mall of America and niceness when discussing travel to the Twin Cities.” And I cannot fault him for the plug for his employer since MOA is one of the major places visitors want to experience when they’re here.

The op-ed has obviously struck a chord since as of this writing, nearly 140 comments had been shared on the Star Tribune website. Not all of them were in agreement either with Leif’s free transportation idea or that the community should be conducting any sort of tourism improvement activities at all. But at least we have the issue on the radar of many people and the conversation has started. That’s a win, in my view.

Some people may look at tourism infrastructure development as some sort of “keeping up with the Joneses” game or as a tourism infrastructure arms race. However, the net impact of destinations working diligently to improve themselves has been overwhelmingly positive.

The World Travel & Tourism Council is an international clearinghouse for travel and tourism research and statistics, and in conjunction with their research partner Oxford Economics, they report that for the sixth consecutive year, the travel and tourism industry’s contribution to the world’s GDP grew and now stands at 9.8% of world GDP. Along with that major stake comes 284 million jobs.

I think of an interview I saw on ESPN over the weekend where University of Connecticut’s women’s head basketball coach Geno Auriemma responded to a question involving his team’s recent dominance in collegiate basketball. He was asked if, somehow, it’s bad for the game that his team continues to improve its competitive position. Interestingly, he used a sports analogy from golf to make his point. According to Auriemma, "when Tiger [Woods] was winning every major, nobody said he was bad for golf. Actually he did a lot for golf. He made everybody have to be a better golfer. And they did. And now there's a lot more great golfers because of Tiger." So, I think it’s clear that we must elevate our participation in worldwide travel and tourism through initiatives like Destination Transformation 2030, our tourism master planning process.

Leif proposed a bold idea that is worth considering. It will be among the numerous potential initiatives that will emerge from our many planned workshops, focus groups and feedback gathering sessions over the next few months. If you have ideas for us to consider, please share them with us. We’re looking for big ideas!

In his piece, he discussed the relative homogeneity that plagues many destinations around the world, and he warns us to avoid that pitfall. For example, if you look a consumer travel magazines or travel trade industry magazines, the attributes that many destinations tout are indeed largely interchangeable.

Leif’s bold idea is to offer free public transportation for all residents and visitors. Leif states that “we would need to offer free public transportation to everyone in order to create a notably unique, destination-defining enticement that people would mention in the same breath as Mall of America and niceness when discussing travel to the Twin Cities.” And I cannot fault him for the plug for his employer since MOA is one of the major places visitors want to experience when they’re here.

The op-ed has obviously struck a chord since as of this writing, nearly 140 comments had been shared on the Star Tribune website. Not all of them were in agreement either with Leif’s free transportation idea or that the community should be conducting any sort of tourism improvement activities at all. But at least we have the issue on the radar of many people and the conversation has started. That’s a win, in my view.

Some people may look at tourism infrastructure development as some sort of “keeping up with the Joneses” game or as a tourism infrastructure arms race. However, the net impact of destinations working diligently to improve themselves has been overwhelmingly positive.

The World Travel & Tourism Council is an international clearinghouse for travel and tourism research and statistics, and in conjunction with their research partner Oxford Economics, they report that for the sixth consecutive year, the travel and tourism industry’s contribution to the world’s GDP grew and now stands at 9.8% of world GDP. Along with that major stake comes 284 million jobs.

I think of an interview I saw on ESPN over the weekend where University of Connecticut’s women’s head basketball coach Geno Auriemma responded to a question involving his team’s recent dominance in collegiate basketball. He was asked if, somehow, it’s bad for the game that his team continues to improve its competitive position. Interestingly, he used a sports analogy from golf to make his point. According to Auriemma, "when Tiger [Woods] was winning every major, nobody said he was bad for golf. Actually he did a lot for golf. He made everybody have to be a better golfer. And they did. And now there's a lot more great golfers because of Tiger." So, I think it’s clear that we must elevate our participation in worldwide travel and tourism through initiatives like Destination Transformation 2030, our tourism master planning process.

Leif proposed a bold idea that is worth considering. It will be among the numerous potential initiatives that will emerge from our many planned workshops, focus groups and feedback gathering sessions over the next few months. If you have ideas for us to consider, please share them with us. We’re looking for big ideas!