Posted on 10/29/2021 2:18:25 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Portland’s “badly damaged” reputation – marked by months of destructive protests, a homeless crisis and record year of homicides – is hurting the standing of Oregon’s largest city, according to the city’s main tourism promoter.
Travel Portland, the city’s tourism promotion group partly funded by taxes, presented data to the City Council and mayor this week showing the city has declined to its “lowest level” of being a likely destination for delegates to attend conferences. Just 64% of surveyed tourists said they would visit Portland again.
“There’s an old old saying, ‘It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and you can ruin it in an instant.’ That’s true of cities, as it is people,” Portland Mayor Wheeler said in response to the Travel Portland data. “And we’re just going to have to commit to that long term process of improving the safety and the livability and the economic prosperity of the city.”
The data shows that more than half of event planners and two-thirds of attendees indicated that their “likelihood” to book or attend meetings in the city over the next two years was heavily influenced by the “visibility” of racial and social protests.
“The impact of this is that we likely won’t even get the opportunity to bid on many conventions for the next two years, which will affect our long term successes well into the future,” said Jeff Miller, the president and of Travel Portland.
City Commissioner Dan Ryan said one of his friends who recently volunteered at a convention texted him about her experience with visitors who felt unsafe in the city.
The woman told Ryan “it was really depressing to have so many people approach her, that looked angry, that we allowed ourselves to even host a big convention... like we weren’t ready for it.”
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
“Just 64% of surveyed tourists said they would visit Portland again.”
Think they missed a decimal point there...
You have to travel to one of these two cities. Portlandia or Beruit.Lebanon. I’d go to Beruit.
Wouldn’t go there to throw up.
I just have to laugh when I read stories like this.
They are always written so earnestly and credulously, as if, wow, who would have thought that letting criminals run amok could negatively affect tourism?
There’s two cities on the northwest pacific coast flotsam and jetsam, the best view of each is in the boats prop wash wake as you leave, if you can get away from the “suck” they create. IMO
The United States Has Republican No-Go Zones
I’d also never heard about this shocking story that illustrates the extent to which political repression is tolerated within the Democrat Party. In her chapter about the 2020 Summer of Riots, Mollie writes:
In 2017, Portland canceled its annual Rose Parade after violent threats from Antifa, which objected to the Multnomah County Republican Party’s being included as one of the many civic groups marching in the parade. Forget Trump; it was unsafe for even an ordinary Republican to walk down the streets of Portland. And in canceling the parade, [Portland Mayor Ted] Wheeler effectively conceded that Antifa ruled the streets.
Restoring its rep?
I wonder if they ever heard of the first rule of holes.
They need to stop digging.
I very much doubt the communists who’ve seized effective control of the city care much. Too bad. I lived there for a year when Portland was just starting it’s slide. It’s heartbreakingly beautiful
The “Great Northwest” toilet.
Seattle and Portland are off my list.
Portland “weird” you can sell.
Portland “violent” you can’t sell.
Having been raised in Vancouver, Washington on the other side of the Columbia River from Portland, this is the reputation that they were destined to have. From the late 60’s to today, Portland always coddled the malcontents and misfits of society. Now this new batch is embolden by 40+ years of coddling.
Back in the day if you dare to go to the “Saturday Market” along the waterfront, you harassed by the bums or take a ride on the light rail and watched the heroin addicts get their nod on.
Well, that has to be disappointing to the travel bureau. And unexpected. Maybe they can start the rebuilding by getting Alec Baldwin to film his next movie there.
A-hole leftists have destroyed that city. Let it rot.
There is a black humor to the desperate spins imparted by desperate PR Flacks.
Asspress kabuki on steroids.
Fat Chance.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.