Middletown Visitors Bureau

Article in the Journal about the ideas from the new director on how to lure outsiders to Middletown and to create interest in the city again for those living here.

She mentions a few ideas to accomplish these goals.

She says Middletown has been "in the dark regionally for quite some time" and she wants to tell the city's story and make it a great place to visit. The "quite some time" amounts to approximately four decades IMO.

The balloon event (legitimate crowd lure) was mentioned as was pickleball, DORA and the Butler County Donut Trail (?)(don't know if those events are interesting enough to use as an attraction gimmick or not). Not sure if any of these matter in the overall scheme of attraction. Seem to be grasping at straws here.

"The organization’s vision is to make Middletown “a destination location inspiring visitors with fresh and innovative experiences.”"

Not sure if this will be accomplished with the suggestions made in this article.

One of the attendees stated they want to "get people downtown".....not a surprising comment here. Seems as if the downtown always is mentioned when the subject of city revitalization/interest/lure is discussed. I know it is their pride and joy but given the slow to moderate success(and failure) rate to date, isn't making it the keynote amenity of attraction a bit of a stretch?

I would say the Balloon Challenge, Light Up Middletown event and the Broad St. Bash may be closer to luring people here than the downtown area offerings. IMO, Middletown will need to lure people using the revamped Sorg Opera House, re-instating the Blues Festival and upgrading the entertainment by spending some money and bringing in some national, recognizable blues artists, and promoting the already attractive Dave Finkelman Auditorium-MUM series to surrounding communities and upgrading the talent level at that event as well. Big names cost money but big names also increase the interest level and bring people to the city as well. Gotta get the promotions to Cincy, Columbus and Dayton to sell the city as offering entertainment worthy of interest and travel. Gotta let big city people know we have something to offer that will make their drive worthwhile. That will require taking some downtown money and diverting it to city promotion for a change.

Ironic that sometimes things are discussed on this forum that eventually shows up in the Journal with some of these organizations taking the credit for the ideas. What is being proposed here by the new Visitor's Bureau has been discussed within these pages over the years. It is nothing new as to content of ideas.