Yes, yes. This is fun to crow about. Forbes lists the top 10 “cultural tourism capitals” of the country. Dallas comes in at No. 7 (behind No. 6 Atlanta, ahead of No. 8 Houston, and crushing No. 10 San Francisco). This fact will no doubt soon show up on the CVB’s website, as it should. But just hang on a second. Check out the methodology:
To determine America’s top cities for cultural tourism, we measured the number of 2008 overnight visitors to each of the 40 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country, factoring in the number of cultural institutions — including museums, sports teams, and live theater and concert venues — according to New York-based AOL City Guide, an online database of local businesses, restaurants, cultural institutions and bars.
So it’s largely based on how many people visit each city. Whether they were here for the Texas-OU game or the Nasher we don’t know. And the number of cultural institution was factored in? How? In other words, there’s no qualitative measure here at all. It’s tough to build a ranking with qualitative measures, I know, but how about polling the country’s culture critics? That could have been interesting.
P.S. Yes, I realize that Forbes story went up August 20. But it’s new to me.
