Major Travel Events: Inauguration 2009

Following the Historic 2008 Election Washington D.C. will be hosting a day in History 0n January 20th 2009 when President Elect Barack Obama and Vice President Elect Joe Biden take the oath of office on the capitol steps. This will mark the 56th Presidential inauguration in American History, and has been given the theme "A New Birth of Freedom". The planners of the Inauguration party have decided to also tie in the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincolns 200th Birthday. which is where they get the theme, which was a line from Lincolns Gettysburg address.

Source: http://www.destinationdc.com/

2008 Global Cities Index

In The 2008 Global Cities Index out of the 60 top Global Cities Washington D.C. ranked 11th overall and 4th among cities in the U.S. behind New York (1st) Los Angles (6th) and Chicago (8th). The group ranked the 60 cities on 5 different categories Business Activity, Human Capitol, Information Exchange, Cultural Experience, and Political Engagement. Washington ranked lowest in Business Activity at 35 overall and ranked highest in Political Engagement at 1st overall. The Political Engagement category was focused on the way in which the city influences global policy making and global dialogue. That was done so by examining the number of embassies and consulates, major think tanks, international organizations, sister city relationships, and political conferences there are in the Washington D.C. metro area. One thing that was interesting is that Washington easily beat out Paris, Brussels, London, and New York, which are the other major political cities around the world in global policy. I think that that really reiterates the dominance of the American Political system and its policies.

Source: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4509&page=1

Tourist Destinations: Jefferson Memorial

The Jefferson Memorial (shown above in the photograph taken at night), like the Washington Monument is one of the most visited tourist spots in all of Washington D.C.. It is located across the Potomac River away from where a majority of the monuments are located. The memorial which is dedicated to the main writer of the declaration of independence and the 3rd President of the United States Thomas Jefferson was on the table for for years starting with President Theodore Roosevelt in 1925. It was finally put to life with President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939 and completed in 1942.
During the construction process there was a major criticism of the project. First of all many objected the million dollar project when the nation could have used those funds to help with the money needed to fund WWII. Also, architecturally the project came under fire because it was constructed during the modernist movement of the early 10th century and those who opposed it disagreed with is Romanesque design.

After its dedication on Jefersons 200th birthday in 1943 the memorial immeadiately became a tourist destinations, and in 1966 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The memorial is free to all visitors and today is listed #4 on the list of Americas Favorite Architecture by the American Institue of Architects.

Source National Parks Serivce www.nps.gov

Tourist Desitinations - Washington Monument

The Washington Monument was one of the cities first major attractions and is arguably the popular monument inside the city of Washington D.C.. It is definitely the most distinctive it stands and 555 feet tall and lets its visitors see for upwards of 30 miles from the observation floor. The monument was made built in remembrance of the country's first President George Washington and completed in the year 1884.
The History of the monument is filled with a number of interesting facts. The first is it took 36 years to finish, due to lack of funding because of the civil war. When the nation came back to finish the monument after the war the marble they were using for the exterior was pulled from a different quarry, the two sections closely resembled each other at the time but after years have passed they different stones have weathered differently causing the naked eye to see different colors. (which can bee seen in the picture above about 1/3 of the way up) The stairwells which are no longer used to get to the top of the structure are lined with 199 commemorative stones that were given as gifts, most by states and other countries.

Even before it was opened the Washington Monument drew large groups in the 6 months after it opened it drew over 10,000 people all who had to climb the 900 steps to the top. The original elevator installed took 20 minutes to get to the top, today it takes 70 seconds. Today the monument continues to draw crowds more than any other place in D.C. as it sees 800,000 visitors each year and is one of the National Parks Service 7 Icon Washington D.C. Memorials

Source: National Parks Service http://www.nps.gov/

Washington D.C.s Global Connectivity

P.J. Taylor created what he calls a "Atlas of Hinterlands" of the top 123 Global Cities. These 123 cities are ranked as how closely connected a city is to the global network of cities "connectivity pattern". Each global city is represented with the same size square and is placed on the map in relation to their actual geographic position. As you can see in the Cartogram above, Washington D.C. (WC) is coded with the color black. After the research was completed D.C.'s Statistics came back as follows: Most over-linked city: Chicago (0.079) Most under-linked city: Dubai (-0.069) Specificity of hinterworld: 0.027. Which means it is most closely related to the City of Chicago, and is furthest away from the city of Dubai in relation to the scale of global connectivity. With Madrid having the highest specificity number of .013 D.C. is not far behind with .027 putting it in the top 10 of the entire list. Using the Cartograms key and noting that red represents the cities highest connections you can see that D.C. is highly linked to all of the major cities across North America, which is to be expected. It is also highly internationally linked to Singapore, Kiev, France, and Rio De Janeiro. It is farthest away from international cities like Lisbon, Tapei, Istanbul, and Dubai.

Transportation In The City

Washington D.C. sees 15 million visitors each year. That is a major influx of people to go on top of the 530,000+ population in the D.C. area each day of the year. This makes public transportation a major factor in keeping the city running on a daily basis.The Washington area Metro System is the cities foremost option for public transportation. The Metro System encompasses both the MetroRail and MetroBus services. The Washington Metro is the nations 3rd largest public transportation system in size covering 5 different rail lines and 86 stations. The Different Lines can be seen in the figure to the left. It is also the nations 2nd most used public transportation system carrying over 206 million passengers annually.

Visitors can also use the cities "DC Circulator" bus system. This separate system has 3 separate routes that sees over 2 million riders each year. The Circulator routes are focused for use by tourists in the city because they connect most of the cities major destinations including Union Station, Georgetown University, The National Mall and The Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
Apart from public transportation inside the city, the greater Washington area is home to 3 different Airports: Washington Dulles International Airport. Ronald Reagan National Airport and Baltimore/Washington International Airport. Between the 3 of them they see over 60 million passengers each year with over 700 weekly departures to 29 different international destinations.

Washington D.C. Sees Major Increase in 2007 Tourism Stats.

Members from Destination D.C., the official tourism corporation for Washington D.C. reported the tourism statistics from the entire year of 2007 this august. The numbers show that D.C. saw 16.2 million visitors in 2007 a 7% increase from 2006. This trend increased the overall spending of the tourism industry to $5.54 billion dollars, creating 600 million in revenue from sales tax alone proving that D.C.s tourism industry is one of the most powerful around the nation.
William Hanbury the president of Destination D.C. cited international visitors and business travelers as major reasons in the boost of tourism revenue for the year of 2007. He went on to explain that because of the revenue in sales tax D.C. households saved nearly 2,400 dollars in a tax burden that otherwise would have fallen on them. Specifically business travel rose by 16.7%, and believed to be because of the weakening nation currency international travel rose by 13%. Lastly, according to Global Insight, a international research firm Washington D.C. ended 2007 as the 8th most popular international destination.

Source: www.destinationdc.com