Robin Hood and the search across the USA for the best visitor attractions in the world
I am about to embark on a huge trip across the USA to learn more about what makes theme parks, visitor attractions and tourist destinations great. I will blogging like crazy whilst I’m away, so have a look here to see what is going on.
I’ll be travelling from Heathrow to the US with Virgin Airlines who I have blogged about here and then across the US with the Sheriff of Nottingham (Yes honestly!). We’ll be visiting LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Plymouth and finally New York to see what they have to offer in the way of brilliant tourist attractions, so that when we do build a Robin Hood attraction in Nottingham, it will be one that is world class.
One of my other roles is to define the brand values for Robin Hood. What does he stand for, what does he mean to you and what does he mean to Nottingham in a city marketing context? How can we utilise his brand to help build our city and how can we make sure that when people come to Nottingham they are excited about what we can give them and they are genuinely thrilled by our Robin Hood experience we can offer them?
I would love any feedback on this, so please reply below. I promise I will publish any that add to the debate – good or bad.
If you want to read about the trip, the places we are visiting and our ongoing thoughts about them, click this link here and it will group them all together.
We had friends with kids up from London this weekend and I looked at Nottingham with a tourist’s eyes again. How about really well done Robin Hood tour, linking sites and activity exhibitions around the city, with maps and guides? I was in Boston recently and followed an excellent Audissey tour (audisseyguides.com).
The new Robin Hood trail around the city will be launched very soon that will lead you from the Castle through to the Lacemarket, with loads of stories and details about the hero in green.
Hopefully a great audio trail will follow too. If you were in Boston, I presume you didn’t do the freedom/boredom trail then – it was the dullest tour in the whole wide world.
Have a look at the stir we caused here.
Good to hear the trail is on its way John.
No, Boston locals advised against the official trail, and it looked too long for a sweaty July day. I listened to this on on my iPhone:
http://www.audisseyguides.com/boston/
What worked, was it didn’t just take you to the major sights. It took you to lots of back-street stuff that I felt I would never have found otherwise. It even took you into that old hotel, imaging Ho Chi Min working as a chef and Malcom X as a waiter. The sound track brought the birth of the revolution to life and being read by a local, obviously passionate about his city, really struck home. Beautiful piece of writing. And being able to stop and start, and make diversions really helped – it made a superb day and a great intro to the city.
Robin Hood was both individual hero and an enactment of a radical social enterprise. Form a strategic perspective I would argue that robbing the rich to give to the poor is intrinsic to, and therefore needs to be built into, the fabric of the brand – albeit in a contemporary reworking. There are a number of innovative ways in which you could do this that would be groundbreaking in the category. Nice project.