Culture Personifies Durham to Visitors
Residents often ask why visitors come to Durham. The answer is "for many reasons." But if one theme characterizes both the way visitors view Durham and the way DCVB promotes it as a destination, it is cultural.
That's culture in the broader sense. Cultural tourism is defined as "heritage (both history and architecture), landscape (gardens, forests), the arts, sports, cooking and cuisine, museums, universities, cities and related elements." Many Durham residents head for the beaches or the mountains or theme parks so it may be hard for them to understand that nationally, 23% of travelers seek culture as defined above, while 27% seek mountains and scenery, and 19% seek beaches and theme parks.
In many ways, Durham is custom-made for travelers interested in or drawn to culture on pleasure or business trips, weekend getaways or family vacations, conventions and meetings or tours. For example:
Heritage (History and Architecture)
Durham is steeped in history including three State Historic Sites (more than any other place in N.C.), four National Historic Landmarks and 54 sites on the National Register of Historic places. In addition, the community has fascinating and varied architecture from the art deco of Downtown, to the neo-Romanesque tobacco warehouses, to gothic Duke West Campus and Georgian Duke East Campus and NCCU....to the futuristic designs in Research Triangle Park to the funkiness of the Ninth Street Shopping District.
Landscape
Durham is home to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens, one of the signature formal gardens in the nation, as well as some of the few scenic byways found within a major urban community, several forests and a series of lakes and rivers. Durham is also home to flora and fauna very rare in the Piedmont region, a major rails-to-trails project and a host of other greenways and trails.
The Arts
Durham is home to 100 working visual artists, scores of studios and galleries, two major art museums with unique collections, 13 performing arts venues, some of the region’s most successful, indigenous performing groups, countless murals and pieces of outdoor art and sculpture as well as funereal art, more than 20 major festivals and events including 11 signature events with national or regional recognition, and scads of nightclubs and venues offering live entertainment.
Sports
Durham is home to the world-famous Durham Bulls Baseball Club, a team credited with the revival of minor league baseball and a return to its roots in Americana. Durham is also home to four national collegiate basketball championships, 10 golf courses (several with national reputations), and championship high school sports.
Cooking and Cuisine
Durham is arguably the center for nationally acclaimed dining and cuisine in North Carolina with a colony of chefs from all over the world. Seventeen Durham Celebrated Cuisine restaurants have received regional or national recognition from such sources as The Food Network, New York Times and Southern Living.
Museums and Universities
Durham offers one of the top museums for families in the country such as the Museum of Life and Science and Insectarium - Magic Wings Butterfly House. Duke and NCCU offer excellent museums for arts, sports and numerous institutes and centers related to culture as well as a host of world-class special collections.
Through aggressive promotion and continued evolution as a visitor destination, Durham now hosts 5.1 million person-visits a year. With more aggressive promotion, Durham can increase the number of visitors by 30% with current facilities before reaching fair market share. Even better news is that with assets like those described above, Durham has a remarkably bright future as a visitor destination.
Last updated 2/27/04
