Mayor Michelle Wu’s All-Inclusive Boston campaign aims at promoting small businesses and reflecting Boston’s diversity and vibrant nature through tourism. This campaign is anchored through a video that reflects the rich culture and diverse spaces of Boston. The purpose of this campaign is to raise awareness and encourage local and international tourists to visit Boston’s neighborhoods. Local businesses owned and run by minorities are included in the campaign.
“When we see our collective connection and shared prosperity as the ultimate goal, we are all stronger,” said Mayor Wu. “We all benefit from more tourism coming to Boston. There is something special for everyone to come and experience here. We want visitors to experience the vibrancy of all of our neighborhoods.”
This campaign will serve as a tool to improve Boston’s tourist and travel business in order to solve the issue of the local economy being hit by the pandemic.
According to the City of Boston data, in 2019 “the greater Boston area received 19.9 million domestic visitors and 2.9 million international visitors.” The pandemic devastated this economy and the hospitality industry, including restaurants and the hotel industry. Because many hospitality industry workers are from BIPOC communities, this crisis stuck to them most particularly.
On Monday, April 4, Mayor Wu announced the next phase of the campaign. “This campaign is an invitation to explore everything our city has to offer,” she said. “We are so excited to be welcoming people from every corner of our state and across the country and the world.”
The second phase of the campaign focuses on the accent spoken by different people in Boston. This phase is named Boston Accents, and it “attempts to put a fresh spin on Boston’s often poorly imitated accent, looking to turn it into an asset by leveraging the city’s history as the birthplace of America mixed with its culturally and linguistically diverse population.”
The campaign was created by various contractors, including Colette Phillips Communications, Greater Boston Convention, and Visitors Bureau and Proverb, in conjunction with the City of Boston.
The goal, Phillips said to NBC 10Boston, is to “change the narrative about Boston, but more importantly, to reinvigorate the economy by driving visitors and residents alike to visit some of the traditionally under-visited small businesses in neighborhoods like Roxbury, Chinatown, Dorchester, the South End and more.”
The City of Boston officially put out on their website that the second phase of the campaign is awarded 1.495 million dollars, through a combination of the federal American Rescue Plan Act and City operating funds. The campaign will be marketed across various social media platforms including “print, radio and video components.”
“With an emphasis on spurring an inclusive economic recovery from the pandemic, the All-Inclusive campaign allows us to reimagine how Boston is perceived locally and across the globe,” said Segun Idowu, Chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion. “I am excited to launch Phase II of the campaign and showcase all that this city has to offer.”
Overall, the goal of the campaign is to highlight and promote Black-owned businesses, discover the vibrant Latinx communities in the neighborhood, and celebrate the diverse Asian experiences in Boston. The Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion administers the campaign, and “contributes to the City’s commitment to creating a more equitable Boston.”