Skift Take
Tourism boards in Miami and Baltimore are effectively tapping into African American travel market. Numerous travel companies, though, may be afraid of alienating white travelers who have been their bread and butter for decades. Including diversity in travel ads may not always be an easy call to make from a business perspective. Diversity advertising must be calculated and thoughtful rather than rushed and non-representative.
When it comes to diversity marketing, Visit Baltimore and the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau are the exceptions to the rule because they actively target a broad set of visitor demographics.
Visit Baltimore and the Greater Miami CVB stand out for their longtime efforts in highlighting each city's diversity. Both organizations' websites feature men and women of color enjoying their cities' sites and attractions and paint pictures of diversity that is deep-rooted in neighborhoods.
Visit Baltimore: Diverse by Definition
About 63% of Baltimore's population is African American. Visit Baltimore makes family reunions central to its offerings and storytelling as it's one of the top reasons why African Americans travel.
Several large events held in the city each year directly cater to the African American family reunion market or the general population of African American leisure travelers. Visit Baltimore's Family Reunion Expo attracted more than 2,000 people in 2014 and events such as Artscape and the African American Festival bring thousands more.
Some 25% of the organization's budget is dedicated to marketing Baltimore and specifically marketing to diverse groups is "weaved throughout all of that," said Dionne Joyner-Weems, Visit Baltimore's vice president of marketing.
It's not all about getting muddled down in race or religion as that would be promoting stereotypes and would be off the mark.
"I’m an African American female. I like to eat too and experience things off the beaten path," said Joyner-Weems.
"A joke we have internally is that we don’t sit there and say, 'Well this ad with this African American female doesn’t only need to be placed in this African American publication,'" said Joyner-W
