Multicultural Travel News – News from New-York Historical Society, MMGY, Boston, Expedia, New York and Ft. Lauderdale

News Briefs:
New-York Historical Society Showcases Black Is Beautiful: The Photography of Kwame Brathwaite
The Biggest Barriers for Travelers With Disabilities (MMGY Global Report)
Boston All Inclusive campaign encourages residents and visitors alike to see Boston as diverse
Expedia Debuts First Ad for New Campaign Focusing on U.S. Latino Travelers
NYC & Company Launches Arabic-language Guide to Halal Travel in New York City During Middle East Sales Mission
Visit Lauderdale Unveils New Brand Campaign “Everyone Under the Sun”
Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West

News Briefs

New-York Historical Society Showcases Black Is Beautiful: The Photography of Kwame Brathwaite
Continuing through January 15, 2023, the New-York Historical Society is the exclusive New York City venue for the traveling exhibition Black Is Beautiful: The Photography of Kwame Brathwaite, the first major show dedicated to this pivotal figure who helped launch and popularize the “Black Is Beautiful” movement of the 1960s. On view through January 15, 2023, the exhibition features 40 large-scale color and black-and-white photographs that document how Brathwaite helped change America’s political and cultural landscape during the so-called Second Harlem Renaissance, using his art to affirm Black physical beauty, celebrate African American community and identity, and reflect the vibrancy of Harlem’s jazz scene, local businesses, and events. “We are thrilled to bring this exhibition to New York City, Kwame Brathwaite’s hometown and the location of many of his most powerful images,” said Dr. Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of New-York Historical. “His work is a testament to the power of a visual medium to impact the movement towards racial equity. We hope Kwame Brathwaite’s photographs inspire a deeper understanding of the Black empowerment movement and how its legacy resonates today.” The exhibition chronicles Brathwaite’s evolution as an activist and artist. Born in Brooklyn in 1938, and raised in the Bronx, Brathwaite was still a teenager when he saw the horrific photographs of Emmett Till in his open casket published in Jet magazine in 1955. For Brathwaite, as for so many people, the impact of those photographs was decisive. As the son of a Caribbean American family, Brathwaite was also greatly influenced by the ongoing Pan-Africanist legacy of the Jamaican-born activist Marcus Garvey. With his brother Elombe, Brathwaite founded the African Jazz-Art Society & Studios (AJASS) and organized concerts featuring jazz luminaries such as Miles Davis, Abbey Lincoln, and Max Roach. In addition to promoting musical events, the group advanced a message of economic empowerment and political consciousness in the Harlem community, emphasizing the power of self-presentation and style. “Think Black, Buy Black” became a rallying cry. In the 1960s, Brathwaite and his collective also sought to address how white conceptions of beauty and body image affected Black women and culture. To do so they popularized the transformative idea “Black Is Beautiful” and founded Grandassa Models, a group of Black women of varying backgrounds from the community who embraced natural hairstyles and their African ancestry. The modeling troupe sought to counter both the slight, androgynous figure made famous by 1960s British supermodels Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy and the ubiquity of lighter-complexioned, straight-haired Black models in Black-owned publications such as Ebony. Alongside striking photographs of Grandassa models, the exhibition features several dresses and pieces of jewelry worn by the women. Special to New-York Historical’s display of the exhibition is a new audio guide available on the Bloomberg Connects app. The audio provides context about the “Black Is Beautiful” movement, the African Jazz-Art Society & Studios, and the Grandassa Models. The audio guide also explores other topics explored in the exhibition including jazz, Black activism, natural beauty, fashion, and Harlem during the time period depicted in Brathwaite’s photographs. Organized by Aperture in partnership with Kwame S. Brathwaite, Brathwaite’s son and director of the Kwame Brathwaite Archive, the photographs—mostly shot in Harlem and the Bronx—tell a story of a movement and a time. Following its presentation at New-York Historical, the exhibition travels to the University of Alabama at Birmingham for the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts in February 2023. The exhibition is accompanied by the first monograph dedicated to Kwame Brathwaite. Featuring essays by Tanisha C. Ford and Deborah Willis and more than 80 images, Kwame Brathwaite: Black Is Beautiful (Aperture, 2019) offers a long-overdue exploration of Brathwaite’s life and work and is available from the NYHistory Store. For more info, visit nyhistory.org.

The Biggest Barriers for Travelers With Disabilities (MMGY Global Report)
MMGY Global released its latest report on the travel industry, called Portrait of Travelers with Disabilities: Mobility and Accessibility, reporting that the top two barriers for travelers with disabilities remain, as ever, accommodations and transportation. The report aims to showcase to the travel industry the needs of millions of individuals across the globe who find that their mobility impairments can also impair their ability to travel. The numbers are indicative of the truth: 96 percent of all respondents have faced a problem with accessible accommodations while traveling; 86 percent have faced difficulties with air travel, and 79 percent have also experienced transportation problems while in their destination. These are startlingly high percentages, considering travelers with mobility impairments spend about $58.2 billion annually on travel and consistently take about the same number of trips annually as an able-bodied individual. The research found that 54 percent of respondents had been given a room upon check-in to their accommodation that didn’t match the room they booked, which can cause accessibility issues to occur. The research found that 81 percent of travelers who were surveyed struggled with inaccessible showers or tubs. Fifty-two percent have also experienced having beds that were too high for them to easily access. Transportation issues continue to occur among travelers with mobility issues, too. Six in ten respondents have experienced extended wait times at the airport before or after their flight waiting for mobility assistance, while forty percent have had their mobility aid lost or damaged during air travel. The report also asked travelers what could benefit them in the future. Over eighty percent of respondents all agreed on three key things: increased promotion of accessible accommodations increased maintenance of ramps, sidewalks and mobile lifts and increased accessibility information on a destination’s website. The report surveyed 2,375 adults with disabilities who utilize mobility aids, as well as 414 caregivers or companions of someone with a mobility impairment. 1,761 had traveled in the past twelve months. MMGY Global worked with a committee of disability advocates, senior business leaders of travel companies who serve and support disabled travelers, destination marketing organizations and more. MMGY Global will be donating all proceeds from sales of the report to the United Spinal Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with spinal cord injuries and disorders (SCI/D), including veterans, to live successful and fulfilling lives.

Boston All Inclusive campaign encourages residents and visitors alike to see Boston as diverse
Proverb – a Black-led, Boston-based advertising and branding agency – helped with the launch of Boston All Inclusive an integrated marketing campaign by the City of Boston to help rebuild the city’s economy in an equitable way. A first-of-its kind tourism and COVID relief campaign, the initiative focuses on more than just driving tourism back into the city safely; it is a platform to encourage equitable recovery by driving visitors to traditionally under-visited businesses and neighborhoods – South End, Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamacia Plain, Chinatown, North End, and East Boston, which were some of the hardest hit economically by the pandemic. The “Boston All Inclusive” campaign encourages residents and visitors alike to see Boston as the diverse, welcoming, and vibrant city that it’s growing into, but isn’t always portrayed in popular media. It is the largest single campaign funded by the city (that was not construction), and the largest ever awarded to exclusively Black and minority-owned businesses, including Proverb, the agency behind the creative work. The multi-channel campaign included a 30-sec TV advertisement, billboards, transit ads, digital ads, organic social, paid social, website content development, and partnerships with local news stations. The campaign resulted in 67.8 million impressions, 25,000 clicks, and 1.1 million social media views. The campaign comes on the heels of Mayor Michelle Wu becoming the first woman, first person of color and first Asian American elected to serve as mayor of Boston, and builds on the city’s commitment to place equity at the center of the City of Boston’s economic recovery from COVID-19. Of note, Boston All Inclusive is the largest single advertising and branding campaign funded by the city in more than 50 years. Most recently, Proverb helped launch the second phase of the campaign called “My Boston Accent.” A play on the stereotypical of dropped R’s and fronted vowels, “My Boston Accent” is a multilingual campaign that acts as a visual expression of Boston’s neighborhoods and communities. A culturally rich and international city, Boston is a melting pot of people with different accents, experiences, abilities, and cultures. This campaign highlighted the heterogeneity of the city and unearthed Boston in its true form: a modern, vibrant, innovative, and progressive city. The second phase of the campaign “My Boston Accent” increased traffic to bostonusa.com, Boston’s official tourism website, by 200%. The campaign helped all of Boston’s residents, neighborhoods, businesses, hotels, cultural institutions, and destinations emerge together. It publicly demonstrated that Boston is more than aggressive sports fans and crazy drivers; it’s a city full of culture, of history made each day, of people connecting through a shared vision for the future. According to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Proverb’s advertising work has helped bring more than 4,000 visits to the city, despite the pandemic.

Expedia Debuts First Ad for New Campaign Focusing on U.S. Latino Travelers
The new campaign narrated by award-winning actress Salma Hayek Pinault celebrates travel and Latin American culture
Expedia® unveiled its new ad, “Maracuyá,” featuring the voice of acclaimed Mexican actress and producer Salma Hayek Pinault. The :30 spot highlights moments in the lives of Latino travelers with the “maracuyá,” or passion fruit, serving as the connecting element between different places and experiences, while Hayek Pinault’s voiceover reminds travelers of the unique benefits of traveling with Expedia. Acknowledging that the passion fruit goes by many different names across Latin American communities, “Maracuyá” showcases a montage of travel moments with the passion fruit at their center. The ad is an extension of the Expedia “Glimpses” campaign which launched in May, and will be available in both Spanish and English, a next step in Expedia’s strategy to connect with Latino travelers in the U.S. “We are so proud of this new Expedia campaign that brings to life the passion Latinos share for travel and discovery,” said Hector Muelas, Senior Vice President of Global Creative at Expedia Group. “Latino culture isn’t a monolith but a nuanced tapestry. The film features passion fruit – and the myriad of words for it in Spanish – as a metaphor for the richness and diversity of Latino identities and cultures.”

NYC & Company Launches Arabic-language Guide to Halal Travel in New York City During Middle East Sales Mission
NYC & Company, New York City’s official destination marketing organization and convention and visitors bureau, released a new Arabic-language version of the organization’s acclaimed Halal Travel Guide. NYC & Company, the first US tourism organization to create a dedicated resource for Muslim travelers, launched the translated guide during a Middle East Sales Mission engaging travel agents and tour operators across the region. This year, international visitation is expected to triple to 8.3 million, including approximately 140,000 visitors from the Middle East. “As tourism recovery accelerates and we continue to welcome global travelers to New York City, our goal is to provide trip planning resources which authentically reflect our diverse communities across all five boroughs–as well as those of our visitors,” said Fred Dixon, President and CEO of NYC & Company. “A major commitment to Muslim travelers was the launch of our Halal Travel Guide earlier this year–a first for any US destination. We’re pleased to now launch the new Arabic-language edition of our guide to halal travel in New York City, and we greatly look forward to welcoming visitors for their next vacation or business trip.” First launched in English earlier this year, the evergreen Halal Travel Guide spotlights and encourages visitation to the rich abundance of halal restaurants, Muslim history, and tourism sites across New York City’s five boroughs. The guide, which also shares tips and advice from Muslim travel experts was created by NYC & Company, in partnership with halal-friendly travel authority Halal Trip/Crescent Rating. The Muslim community has been an integral part of the fabric of New York City for nearly 400 years, with more than 275 mosques across all five boroughs—more than any other metro area in the United States. The guide includes prayer places and their distance/time from the featured attractions, restaurants, and hotels. The Halal Travel Guide can be found at nycgo.com/HalalTravelGuide, and in PDF format in both English and Arabic. Participating New York City tourism partners include Hudson Yards, InterContinental New York Barclay, Lotte New York Palace, The Pierre, a Taj Hotel and SUMMIT One Vanderbilt, all of which are also featured in the Halal Travel Guide. In addition, NYC & Company has invested in new permanent multicultural content and destination guides on NYCGO.com, including The Black Experience in NYC, The Latino Experience in NYC and The Asian Experience in NYC. For more on all there is to see and do in New York City’s five boroughs, go to nycgo.com.

Visit Lauderdale Unveils New Brand Campaign “Everyone Under the Sun”
Vibrant Campaign Reflects the Destination’s Authentic Welcoming Vibe and Inclusive Community
Visit Lauderdale, the official destination marketing organization (DMO) for Greater Fort Lauderdale in South Florida, unveiled its new brand campaign “Everyone Under the Sun.” The vibrant campaign reflects Greater Fort Lauderdale’s authentic welcoming vibe and its inclusive community. “This campaign goes to the heart of what makes our community great – the people and our diverse offerings. We now have a strong campaign that truly reflects who we are and shows how special Greater Fort Lauderdale is in every bold, beautiful, and surprising way,” says Stacy Ritter, president and CEO of Visit Lauderdale. “We are graciously welcoming everyone, and I mean everyone, to come join us and experience our tropical paradise rich with culture, flavor and unique experiences. Our diversity is our strength, and we are proudly telling this story to the world.” The destination’s commitment to inclusion is front and center with ads starring locals with disabilities, members of the area’s LGBT+ community (Greater Fort Lauderdale is Florida’s LGBT+ capital), people of a diverse age range and various racial and ethnic identities. People from more than 170 countries speaking 147 languages call Greater Fort Lauderdale home. Find trip planning inspiration at visitlauderdale.com and follow @VisitLauderdale on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West
A first-of-its-kind art exhibit that explores Black history in the West is currently on display through January 8, 2023, at The James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art in St. Petersburg, Florida. Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West explores the path of Black history in the West with a timeline of original pictorial quilts. These colorful, richly detailed works of art chronicle the arrival of Africans in the American West in 1528 all the way through the Civil Rights Movement, bringing to life forgotten stories and lesser-known chapters in history. Dispelling the myth that Black people in the old West were mostly cowboys, Black Pioneers reveals the breadth of their occupations and achievements in society, religion, education, and the arts. Quilts were chosen as the visual medium for the exhibit to highlight the intersections of African Americans in the Western Frontier while informing viewers about the art form and its important role in African American history. For African American women, quilts have always been at the core of artistic expression, taking form in the social, economic, and spiritual lives of the women who make them. The exhibit was organized by The James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art and Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi, curator, historian and artist. The 50 quilts on display were created by the Women of Color Quilters Network (WCQN) especially for the exhibit. Founded by Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi in 1985, Women of Color Quilters Network is a non-profit national organization whose mission is to educate, preserve, exhibit, promote and document quilts made by African Americans. With her own quilts displayed in over 74 exhibits and having curated 21 extensive exhibits of quilts, Black Pioneers marks Dr. Mazloomi’s final exhibit. “Quilts and quilt making are important to America and Black culture in particular, because the art form was historically one of the few mediums accessible to marginalized groups to tell their own story, to provide warmth for their families, and to empower them with a voice through cloth,” said Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi. For more information, call 727.892.4200 or visit www.thejamesmuseum.org.

To submit a press release for consideration for coverage (no charge) in Multicultural Travel News and Multicultural Entertainment News, send by email to editor Lisa Skriloff at lisa@multicultural.com.

About This Newsletter
Multicultural Travel News newsletter (MTN) covers travel news of interest to ethnic and niche travelers and those who market to them. We write about destinations that interest multicultural travelers or have outreach campaigns to travelers of Hispanic, African American, Asian American and other cultural backgrounds; women; LGBT travelers and people with disabilities.
Multicultural Travel News is also written for leisure and business travelers looking for what to see and do and for marketing executives interested in ideas, best practices and the business case for targeting so-called “minority” travelers. We cover cities and countries, hotels, airlines, cruise lines, convention and visitor bureaus, tour operators and other travel marketers with a multicultural angle. Multicultural Travel News is written and edited by Lisa Skriloff.

Multicultural Travel News is published by Multicultural Marketing Resources, Inc. (MMR). To view past editions click here.
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