The man who hates Philadelphia

Okay, frankly (har!), we’re all sick of the Ben Franklin hype. (I’m using the royal we here.) Okay, he invented more things in one day than I ever will in my life and he was a founding father and he had a lot of sex and blah blah blah. Great. But I’m not really sure how anyone is so excited about the fact he was born 300 years ago.

But, apparently, it’s working. (And, I’m sorry, I’m kind of sick of these stories, too. But, hey, I was here for approximately 20 years when this city was the cesspool of America, and now that we’re suddenly “hip” — allegedly, but I’m as skeptical as these guys — it’s time to soak it in.) The mag Travel Weekly recently held a roundtable of all the top editors of travel mags, and they had this discussion (thanks to all who sent this in):

Veronica Stoddart, travel editor, USA Today: Look at Philadelphia. It’s celebrating Ben Franklin’s 300th birthday, and there’s a huge marketing campaign. The campaign works because the city is really coming into its own anyway — it’s going through a renaissance. It’s right at the top of the list of domestic destinations.

Melissa Biggs Bradley, editor, Town & Country Travel: I am blown away by what’s available in that city.

Nancy Novogrod, editor in chief, Travel+Leisure: It’s definitely on the food map.

Keith Bellows, editor, National Geographic Traveler: And it’s on the art map.

Bellows: Wait a minute. No, no, no. We did a story on Philadelphia because I think it’s the next great American city. That’s where it started. It had nothing to do with any anniversary. I felt this city was ready for prime time.

Bradley: Nancy agrees, Beth agrees, I agree. I mean, there’s a confluence of things going on in Philadelphia, between museums and dining.

Novogrod: Absolutely.

Torkells: We do a thing in (Budget Travel) called Trip Coach, where people write in and we help them out. No one writes in and says they want to go to Philadelphia. They want to go to New York!

Novogrod: But they may want to go to Philadelphia.

Torkells: They may. They very well may — and if they do, it’s because this room has anointed it very nicely.

[...]

Torkells: My feeling is that we all want to go to the same destinations, but some of us don’t have as much money, or if we have as much money, we just don’t want to spend it. I guess that’s why this hunt for the hot destination rings a false bell for me. I don’t want to go to the new restaurant in Philadelphia — I want to go to the Taj Mahal! (quietly) God, I’m going to be struck dead by Philadelphia.

Well, it’s working except for that one guy. He just needs a couple of jolts of Benergy right to the upper shoulder and we’ll be set.

Editor’s Note: Okay. No more Benergy jokes. I swear. In fact, no more mentioning Ben Franklin, ever. From here on out, it’s B** F*******. If I break this, somebody please shoot me.

Consumer travel editors discuss hot topics for ‘06 [Travel Weekly (reg. req.)]
Erik Torkells Is Your Daddy [Gridskipper]