Boston needs more tourists. Are Michelin stars the way to get them?
in 1900 by a French tire company to inspire more road trips, is a sign that your city's culinary scene has arrived — worthy of mention in the same breath as restaurants in New York, Paris, and London. Some cities don't need to pay for Michelin to show up; others like Boston and
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The reason Meet Boston can even do this is because the not-for-profit organization has a gusher of money flowing from a three-year-old surcharge on hotel rooms in Boston and Cambridge that generates tens of millions of dollars a year to boost tourism.
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So what's the best way to spend that money?
Some would like the agency to invest more in homegrown grassroots festivals and programming to develop the next wave of signature events that draw visitors from all over New England and beyond. Think the next generation of the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular, Boston Calling, and First Night.
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Meet Boston does dole out money to community-oriented events, but the disparity of those investments can be huge.
Established events can receive $100,000 or more from Meet Boston, while programs like the
This year,
BAMS Fest founder and executive artistic director Catherine T. Morris spoke onstage at BAMS Fest in 2023.
Katy Beth Barber
Morris was inspired by Philadelphia's
BAMS Fest drawing tens of thousands of attendees over the years, Morris felt like it was the right time to take things to the next level.
Weeks after the Globe began asking questions about Meet Boston's funding formula, Morris learned she would be receiving $100,000.
It's not $450,000, but she considers it a good start.
'I initially was like, yes!' Morris said. 'So the investment is growing, but I also had mixed emotions regarding what more [money] could do.'
Meet Boston's budget has ballooned since 2022,
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That's a huge step up. Before the new levy, Meet Boston — formerly known as the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau —
The money has enabled Meet Boston to more than double the size of its staff to about 65 people, spend more on marketing, launch a grant-making programming that gives out roughly $4 million a year, and bankroll initiatives like bringing the Michelin Guide to Boston.
But the fact that Meet Boston has money to give out isn't widely known. Some organizations, like the
JerkFest is an annual celebration of Caribbean cooking held each year at the Harvard Athletic Complex in Allston.
Mark J. Hunt
'I had no idea,' said Susan Chinsen, who works at ArtsEmerson and founded the festival in 2008. The process, she added, felt a 'little exclusive.'
Now that she knows the grants exist, Chinsen plans to seek $50,000. That money would allow her to fly in more filmmakers and actors to promote their films at the festival, which draws a few thousand attendees every fall.
She thinks more out-of-state visitors would come if she could partner with hotels to offer weekend packages.
Even on a shoe-string budget, Chinsen has been able to get Hollywood talent to come to Boston, including George Takei,
of Star Trek fame, and Oscar-winning director Ang Lee ('Brokeback Mountain' and 'Life of Pi').
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Carole Copeland Thomas, a longtime Meet Boston board member who chairs the Multicultural Committee, acknowledged the organization can do a better job with outreach. Over the past two years, Meet Boston has spent nearly $11 million supporting events, and of that, about 25 percent has gone toward multicultural events.
'Clearly, there are new opportunities to let more groups in our city know who we are,' Copeland Thomas said. 'Like any dynamic organization, Meet Boston always strives to represent the full potential of our destination by engaging with diverse communities, events, and organizations that help to drive the travel economy.'
Typically, money from the special tourism tax district is supposed to go toward large-scale events that drive overnight stays, especially during periods when there aren't a lot of tourists, like wintertime. Community events don't tend to generate hotel nights.
I get why hotels and Meet Boston — its board is stacked with hotel executives — favor visitors who can stay the weekend here, but there's an inherent bias in that strategy, one that gravitates toward established events.
Meet Boston has the power to change that dynamic, and it has sometimes done so, putting six-figure resources into
Perhaps now more than ever these multicultural gatherings — many of them rooted in neighborhoods of color celebrating the city's diversity — need substantial support at a time when other sources are drying up.
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Another framework to consider is how the
The afterparty at the end of the Embrace Ideas Festival in 2023.
Vincent Alban For The Boston Globe
When I talked to Meet Boston chief executive Martha Sheridan about the bureau's grants, she said the strategy is evolving.
'We don't have unlimited funds,' Sheridan said. 'We are going to have to really figure out a way to get more bang for the buck if you will, and make sure that we can spread the wealth enough but not so much that our investments aren't meaningful. It's a balancing act.'
Meet Boston is betting big on the Michelin Guide shining a spotlight on the region's restaurants. Yet the whole thing can feel like a
'Will those Michelin chasers be going to the small mom & pop ethnic, up-and-coming or tried-and-true spots? Probably not,' wrote Jacqueline Church, owner of Boston Chinatown Tours,
As federal and corporate funding grows scarce, Meet Boston can meet the moment to help more local events grow and spread tourism dollars into more neighborhoods of Boston. Not doing so is a lost opportunity.
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Shirley Leung is a Business columnist. She can be reached at
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Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Welcome to Harvard's Recycling and Surplus Center, the store with no sticker shock
Elsewhere on Harvard's sprawling campus, administrators are battling countless crises threatening the elite university's bottom line. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up But here — among the foragers hauling away all the lamps, rugs, and T-shirts they can carry — that war over dollars feels very far away. Advertisement 'Harvard will outlast all of them,' said Garnett, who has tried to come to the center most weeks since 2005, back when it was located in an Allston parking lot. An antiques dealer with a warehouse in Lynn, Garnett generally seeks out small furnishings to resell, but on this visit, he stumbled across a geometric painting in a rainbow of colors. He wasn't yet sure if he would try to flip it, or keep it to decorate his Chelsea condo. An antiques dealer with a warehouse in Lynn, Wayne Garnett generally seeks out small furnishings to resell, but on this visit to Harvard's Recycling and Surplus Center, he stumbled across a geometric painting in a rainbow of colors. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff 'It has helped me make a living, that's for sure,' he said of the center. 'It's been a central part of that.' Advertisement The idea behind the center, which has existed in various forms for more than two decades, is to minimize the waste generated by students, professors, and administrators on the sprawling campus. When undergrads want to offload their mini-fridges at the end of the semester, a dorm wants to discard hundreds of air purifiers, or the Divinity School wants to ditch their pews, it all comes here. The takers are many: Resellers like Garnett looking to make a quick buck. Do-gooders passing the donations on to nonprofits. And, of course, people squeezed by 'I still get a lot of people that will come by my office before they leave, and they're like, 'Do I need to check out? How much are these things?'' said Dailey Brannin, Harvard's recycling services supervisor and overseer of the center. 'And I'm like, 'Nope, it's all free.'' That's a boon for people like Miriam Nussbaum, who stopped by on a Thursday in late May — the height of the frenetic undergraduate move-out season. Nussbaum, who receives Supplemental Security Income, has enough money to cover her basics — rent, groceries, phone. But it's more of a stretch to afford 'things that make a space a home,' she said, like the rug and fake plant she unearthed to bring back to her studio apartment in Brookline public housing. 'A lot of people who are higher earners don't really think about the cost of the little…' She paused. 'The little everythings.' Advertisement Mountains of books, a hockey stick, and a balloon inflater were all on offer at Harvard's Recycling and Surplus Center on a recent Thursday. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff And the center's got an embarrassment of everythings. On that Thursday in late May, a cat tree, balloon inflater, and baby grand piano were all on offer. A small library's worth of books, and bins upon bins of clothes — some of it with labels like Zara, Brooks Brothers, and Levi's — were also up for grabs. Not everything was a gem, though, including a single boxing glove, an opened box of tampons, and a spiral notebook filled with math problems. 'If you can buy it in a store, or order it online, or have it fabricated, we've seen it,' said Rob Gogan, Harvard's onetime recycling and waste manager, who retired in 2020. The selection wasn't quite this eclectic when the center got its start under Gogan. The way he tells it, 'It started because of carpal tunnel syndrome.' Around the turn of the millennium, he said, many students were beset by the ailment — a result of using desktop computers on dorm-room desks not designed for keyboards. So when the school ordered new desks, Gogan was tasked with disposing of several hundred old ones. He put them in the parking lot behind his office and let people know they were available to snag. Pretty soon, more furniture started coming his way, and the parking-lot setup turned into a full-fledged operation. A cluster of lamps at Harvard's Recycling and Surplus Center. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff Today, the center is staffed by Brannin and another full-time employee, some volunteers, and two box truck drivers who make their way around Harvard's campus to pick up unwanted goods and shuttle them back to the center. In the last year, Brannin estimated, the drivers picked up more than 15,000 items. Those items are as diverse as the cast of characters ransacking them. 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USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
Why scooters and e-bikes are the newest travel hazard you didn't see coming
Sarah Morris used to love riding an e-scooter. Until her accident. Morris, a tour guide from Seattle, lost control of her rental last year and wiped out. "The handlebars came back at me and hit me square in the face, knocking me unconscious," she remembered. "I fell to the ground and slashed my chin and forehead open on the gravel." The accident left her with 60 stitches to her head, a traumatic brain injury, and a new perspective on motorized scooters. "Now, I have zero tolerance for them," she said. Check out Elliott Confidential, the newsletter the travel industry doesn't want you to read. Each issue is filled with breaking news, deep insights, and exclusive strategies for becoming a better traveler. But don't tell anyone! That's becoming a popular opinion. Many major tourist destinations, such as New York, Paris and Madrid, have either banned or strictly limited e-scooters. Many more are on the verge of going scooter-free. I agree with Morris. I've traveled around the world, and there seems to be one constant: the ever-present motorized scooters and bikes on the sidewalks, weaving between pedestrians. It's time to put an end to the madness. "There are a lot of reasons travelers should remain very aware of their surroundings, but the popularity of e-bikes and scooters in tourist destinations definitely adds urgency to that," said John Gobbels, chief operating officer of Medjet, a membership program that provides air medical transport and travel security services. Flying mistakes you'll wish you didn't make; from bad seat swaps to spilled drinks How dangerous are e-bikes and scooters to tourists? Medjet has seen an uptick in transport calls related to e-bike and scooter accidents from both sides – the rider getting hurt and someone who got hit by the e-bike or scooter. A recent national study by the University of California at San Francisco found that accident rates were soaring in the United States, with e-bicycle injuries doubling every year from 2017 to 2022 and e-scooter injuries rising by 45% each year. In rare cases, the incidents can seriously injure travelers. For example, a hit-and-run with a motorized scooter in West Hollywood left one woman with a fractured skull and brain swelling. And an American visiting Sydney was struck by an e-bike while crossing a path where cycling was not allowed, sending him to the hospital with a serious brain injury. Rental companies are aware of the problems and say they are working to make their scooters safer. Lime, one of the largest scooter rental companies, told me that it's developing rider education and on-vehicle technology. It also shares its rider data with cities to determine where infrastructure improvements like protected bike lanes would be most valuable. 'Safety is at the core of our mission at Lime, and the foundation for successful micromobility programs," says Lime spokesman Jacob Tugendrajch. He noted that 99.99% of Lime trips end without any reported incident. Yet most run-ins between visitors and these new mobility devices go unreported. Even if they're just close calls or clips, they can really affect the visitor experience in that they leave people stunned and frightened. And, to be fair, it's often tourists who do it to each other. They rent an e-scooter or bike for a few hours and race it around town, sometimes taking the vehicle for a joyride on the sidewalk. What's the problem with scooters and e-bikes? So what's wrong with these popular urban mobility vehicles? Nothing – and everything. Nothing, in the sense that they are not inherently dangerous. A scooter or e-bike operated carefully in a dedicated bike lane can get you from point A to point B quickly and safely. Problem is, a mobility lane isn't always available. "In the street, e-scooter riders feel unsafe because of cars, which can easily kill an e-scooter rider," said Ralph Buehler, a professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech. "On sidewalks, e-scooter riders feel that they are endangering pedestrians, and they can't move freely." But that's not all. E-bikes are bulkier and faster than conventional bikes, and they can easily reach speeds of 30 miles per hour. And the newest e-scooters, though a bit slower, are built like a tank. In the wrong hands, they're a menace to pedestrians. Tourists are afraid of e-bikes and scooters Travelers don't really think about the safety of a pedestrian walkway until they're actually standing on it. But if you ask them about the threat of scooters, they're not shy about sharing their opinions. Jenna Rose Robbins, a web consultant who lives in Los Angeles, said Miami is pretty awful when it comes to scooters. "The scooters and e-bikes are a nuisance," she said. "I was nearly hit on numerous occasions, and there was a certain lawlessness to it all -- no signs saying not to ride them on sidewalks, piles of scooters on almost every corner." Morris, the tour guide from Seattle, told me her "zero tolerance" attitude toward e-bikes and scooters wasn't just the result of her collision. Her experience of showing visitors Seattle cemented her position. "I've personally been clipped multiple times just walking down the sidewalk," she said. "Riders often don't realize that walking tours stop, move, and change direction, which leads to frequent close calls." What should you do about the dangerous streets? I'm currently in Christchurch, New Zealand, where pedestrians have to be extra careful. In fact, I just returned from a walk through town and counted three close calls – one e-bike, two scooters. They were all on the sidewalk. I asked Chris Davlantes, an emergency room physician, what to do about this problem. Davlantes, a concussion expert and senior medical director for Abbott's point of care diagnostics business, has some firsthand experience. He was recently riding an e-scooter and collided with a pedestrian who wandered into the bike lane. The pedestrian was fine, but Davlantes went airborne and suffered a concussion, bilateral nasal bone fractures, two broken bones in his right wrist and a broken finger on his left hand. "Always be attentive," he said. "Especially when crossing the street at an intersection – and even if you have the right of way." Read between the lines: Stay off your phone and watch where you're going. Never step into the bike lane unless you first look both ways. And be aware that e-bikes and scooters are fast and heavy – and very quiet. He added that if you're in an accident and hit your head, you should get checked out even if you feel OK. "When it comes to concussions, it's never best to wait and see," he warned. "For your best chance at a full recovery, seek professional medical help immediately." The sidewalk should be off-limits to e-bikes and scooters But what about the problem of e-bikes and scooters on the sidewalk? If you're traveling anywhere this summer, you should assume that you'll be sharing the pedestrian walkway with fast-moving vehicles, and they won't always be on their best behavior. This is not a difficult problem, and it's not a controversial solution. These vehicles should never be allowed on the sidewalk, ever. And e-bikes should probably be on the road, since they are practically mopeds, anyway. I used to think pickpockets and tourist traps were the biggest threats to visitors, but those are usually easy to avoid. E-bikes and scooters, not so much. Be careful out there. Christopher Elliott is an author, consumer advocate, and journalist. He founded Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps solve consumer problems. He publishes Elliott Confidential, a travel newsletter, and the Elliott Report, a news site about customer service. If you need help with a consumer problem, you can reach him here or email him at chris@
Time Business News
3 hours ago
- Time Business News
Why Professional Refrigerator Repair is Worth the Investment?
Refrigerators are a corner of any imposed contemporary living arrangement, encapsulating food safety, freshness, and punctuality of delivery. A broken appliance can set one's schedule into disarray.. At this juncture, a person has to make a choice: enter the repair mode himself or herself, purchase a new device, or call a professional in. Most homeowners hesitate in bringing in an expert, perhaps underestimating the significance of professional refrigerator repair. Understanding why this is almost always the best decision you can make will help you make sound decisions when your fridge has a problem. Professional repair technicians are not only handymen, although they are that too—they're trained to comprehend the technical infrastructure of new refrigerators. They see patterns in mechanical and electrical problems, from old models to smart fridges. From faulty compressors to temperature regulation problems, their experience informs them how to identify and fix intricate issues quickly. This degree of precision prevents chronic problems, and it ensures the fridge receives the attention it requires, not guesswork. Also, their expertise covers different companies and models across a pervasive spectrum. Once authorized as a repair professional, he or she already knows the specific details and elements involved in the French door, the side-by-side, or the bottom freezer refrigerator. What most people do not know is that expert fridge repair involves more than fixing a faulty part. Performing repair operations generally involves diagnostics, checks, and perhaps a performance test to catch a minor fault before it turns into a major one. Refrigerators are usually delicate items; a slight wrong technique will simply do them in. 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They can give precise diagnostics, describe the problem in plain language, and suggest the optimal action without hassle. Such honest assistance eliminates the guesswork and sets your fridge on the way to complete recovery. Over time, having experts do your refrigerator repair will save you time, eliminate bigger problems, and maintain your investment. To some extent, one can consider an initial cost, although the return provided by accuracy, safety, and long-lasting upkeep of the appliance far outweighs the price paid. That is why the worth of a reliable handyman is invaluable when it comes to essential home appliances. When your refrigerator is in trouble, don't try to be your repairman. A professional knows the techniques, has the tools, and is experienced to correct performance.' TIME BUSINESS NEWS
