Communication Breakdown - New (and Old) Atlanta
Group Travel Blog
I went to Atlanta this past weekend to do some research for an upcoming article in LGT. I had been invited by the Atlanta CVB to participate in New Discoveries 2006, a new trade show highlighting the tourism opportunities in Atlanta and in Georgia at large. So armed with the business-class ticket they provided me, off I went exploring New (and Old) Atlanta.
The first day, we visited the citys circuit of historically black universities: Spelman, Emory and Morehouse Colleges; and followed the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., as it was lived in Atlanta during his childhood and at the end of his life. Visiting the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site was a particularly powerful experience. Kings tomb is displayed triumphantly in the middle of a pool with a fountain on one end, and his wifes tomb will soon be moved next to his, though it now lies twenty feet away in a garden facing Sweet Auburn Avenue, where MLK was born.
Inside the center is a record of the lives of African-Americans from the 1930s until1968. While inside, I found myself horrified at one of the displays. It was a series of glass slabs with Jim Crow laws of the various southern states, laws like, Anyone found publishing or distributing literature promoting equality or equal rights will be fined a minimum of $500 and will serve up to 12 months in jail. Other laws discussed the consequences of marrying or even living with someone outside of their own race, and some I had to read twice or three times just to make sure I hadn’t read them incorrectly. There were hundreds listed, laws from every state in the South, each empowering the lawmakers to push the envelope further. I knew that these laws had existed, but not to what extent the quiet, peaceful setting of the Center felt like a dignified tomb for the man and these laws that, in many ways, eventually killed him.
The next morning saw us visiting the World of Coke (soon to be the Old World of Coke, as they are building a new facility across from Centennial Olympic Park for 2007). Lunch was at Underground Atlanta. The Chick-fil-A chicken sandwiches were excellent and the Underground was nice, though I was expecting it to be more like Seattles Underground, kind of creepy and kitschy-in-a-cool-way. Atlantas Underground was just an older part of the city that was built before the advent of cars it is more like a shopping area, with locals selling tee shirts and fruit from booths.
Then we were off to the days themed tours. My group concentrated on student group destinations. I tasted a chocolate bar infused with ginger and wasabi (bizarrely delicious!) at Fernbank, which houses a large collection of dinosaur bones. (I will never again nag at people for their strange tastes in food.)
After visiting Cyclorama, the worlds largest painting, we went to nearby Zoo Atlanta, where we saw twin gorillas being cared for by their mother. The keepers informed us that there have only been seven sets of twins born in captivity, just three of which have survived. To top that off, this is the only set to be raised by its birth mother; most are split up because of the stress put on the mother.
After the zoo, a visit to CNN Studios was next on the itinerary, where we took a behind-the-scenes look at what it would be like to do the news and watched the anchors as they reported their stories. After the tour, we all reconvened for dinner at the newly opened Atlantic Station, a huge shopping and tourism destination that is huge part of what industry insiders are calling New Atlanta.
With the newly opened Georgia Aquarium (a beautiful facility and the largest aquarium in the world), the upcoming World of Coke, Atlantic Station and much more, the city is going through a great set of changes and revitalizations. As a local tour escort said to me, I have lived here all my life, and it never stops changing.
I felt that on Friday as well, in talking with the various CVBs and attractions at the trade show. It seems that the 1996 Olympics did a wonderful thing for Atlanta tourism, even ten years out. It revitalized the way the city, and the state at large, thinks of itself as a tourism destination. If you’d like more information on Atlanta and Georgia, visit www.georgia.org
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