First U.S. National Civil Rights Trail Seeks International Tourism Appeal
Photo Credit: The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel was the site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination and is among the top 10 highlighted attractions on the new U.S. Civil Rights Trail. National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel
Skift Take
America's first national civil rights trail has broad appeal. More international visitors are planning trips around these black history museums and landmarks, many new and revamped, and this trail could lengthen and multiply those trips.
Some U.S. states have their own civil rights trails, with Alabama’s being one of the most robust, but now a national trail through 14 states is presenting new tourism opportunities.
The U.S. Civil Rights Trail is poised to launch this week and it will include more than 120 attractions, mostly in the American South.
The trail is the latest indication of the increased appeal and growth of civil rights tourism. Among the signals, the new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, the country’s first state-sponsored civil rights museum, has attracted high praise; tickets to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., the first such national museum, must be booked months ahead; and there is increased investment in new and revamped civil rights museums across the American South.
Both the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the "Blacksonian" in the nation's capital are on the new trail, and highlighted among its top 10 attractions.
The U.S. Civil
