Civil Rights Tourism Is Growing and Needs Better Apps
Photo Credit: Screenshots from one of the National Museum of African American History and Culture's apps, which integrate the museum into a larger tourism effort. iTunes
Skift Take
Smart destination marketing organizations will recognize that civil rights isn't just a hot-button political issue — it's a crucial part of a destination's identity, and with the right tech, it can draw visitors accordingly.
Race is a searing hot topic today — young people are hitting the streets like their parents did in the 1960s, protesting against police brutality, mass incarceration, and a new wave of white nationalism.
Destination marketing organizations are slowly realizing that civil rights is a tourism asset, a valuable part of a place's identity, like country music in Nashville or cajun food in New Orleans. In Washington D.C., America’s only national museum devoted to black history just opened to the tune of $540 million and has drawn intense crowds — timed tickets are booked solid through March 2017. And that’s just the biggest of many new civil rights museums in the U.S. Black Americans are among the fastest-growing traveler groups in the country, spending $48 billion annually, with black history attractions being a priority for most, according to a study by Mandala Research.
But here’s the key: young black Americans today are more familiar with Black Lives Matt
