Plantation Backlash Forces Destinations in U.S. South to Rethink Marketing

Former slave plantations have long been crucial to the tourism infrastructure of the American South. They attract lots of events and tour groups, in part because many stakeholders market them as romantic places with nice architecture and photogenic landscaping. But now that Pinterest, The Knot, Zola, and similar sites have cut back on promoting plantations as wedding venues, the broader world of events and tourism faces renewed pressure to acknowledge the violent history of these properties instead of avoiding a painful subject in an effort to keep visitation numbers up. “The reality is that many historic venues in the South have ties to enslavement,” said Helen Hill, CEO of Explore Charleston in South Carolina, in a statement. “Another reality is that special events, including weddings held at plantations, support hundreds of jobs and provide the funding necessary for these sites to continue their critical mission of telling these complex stories.” Visitor bureaus acr