Tucson lost countless tourism dollars when it lost major league baseball years ago, but Visit Tucson is counting on baseball cards to sell food to tourists. If that doesn’t make sense, consider the fact that the concept was conceived by the same marketing gurus who were soundly ridiculed when they introduced Ideotourism in 2013.
Brent DeRaad, President and CEO of Visit Tucson introduced the hokey concept in a letter of introduction sent out to community leaders:
At Visit Tucson, we’re happy to share with you our new Best 23 Miles Mexican Food trading cards, hopefully the first in a series. We created these cards (in partnership with Tucson Foodie, who provided many of the photos) to celebrate some of the incredible diversity within our area’s south-of-the-border delights, perennial favorites to lesser-known spots. It isn’t a complete list, for certain, but hopefully a cross-section that will remind people of somewhere they haven’t been in a while and a few places they need to try.
Yes, we’re selling these packs locally (at our visitors (sic) center at University and Euclid), but the primary focus is as a PR and marketing tool. Packs are on their way to food journalists across the country, who have an interest to Mexican food, plus we bought packs for the influential Travel Classics West writers conference in Scottsdale. We’ll also distribute packs at forthcoming consumer shows in San Francisco and Chicago. Mexican food as expert Gustavo Arellano wrote on NPR.org earlier this year “Why Doesn’t Tucson’s Mexican Food Scene Get More National Attention?” These cards are part of our continuing attempt to change that.
The cards, while hopefully fun and amusing at their core, are part of a larger strategy here at visit Tucson – connecting potential visitors to experiences they might enjoy here in Tucson, experiences that are distinctive, memorable, and unique. You’ll likely agree that the restaurants included here hit all three of those marks, and we hope you’ll enjoy our endeavor to celebrate them.
Enjoy the cards (and the food they inspire you to eat)!
Visit Tucson’s marketing minds might be an obvious answer to Arellano’s question: “Why Doesn’t Tucson’s Mexican Food Scene Get More National Attention?”
Did You Know?
Related article: Visit Tucson to promote Ideotourism
The Pima County Board approved spending nearly $3.3 million on Visit Tucson’s marketing plan for the Fiscal Year 2013 to 2014. The plan is designed to promote Ideotourism, business travel, film production and sports development.
Potential visitors across the country will be sold on the concept that Tucson is a “liberal college town” with “open minds.” The 39 slide PowerPoint presentation shown to the Tucson City Council on Tuesday notes, “We get a lot of credit for being a progressive city in a conservative state.”
The brittle tasteless sticks of gum in each package might be overlooked, but the restaurants’ names and sales pitches printed on the cards will surely be overlooked by anyone over the age of forty. In other words – people old enough and wealthy enough to take a trip to the southwest just to eat massive amounts of carbohydrates will have to put their readers on to enjoy the “fun and amusing” cards.
