"United Airlines have many precedents of bullying Chinese passengers."

So reads a photo slug contained within a recent People's Daily report on how "UA refuses to apologize after insulting passengers." It's part of the newspaper's "The Dishonest Americans Series"—a title since removed—that is easily dismissed as just another of China state-run media's hatchet jobs targeted at foreign brands. (See, esp., Apple.) The piece ends without mincing any words: "Chinese passengers may choose not to consider UA. This probably is the best solution."

But the report—about United Airlines' culture of discriminating against Chinese passengers—hints at a deeper growing confrontation as China becomes the largest and most profitable tourist market in the world.Continue reading...

It's just another day in the rehabilitation efforts of Detroit. The city has launched its first business-to-business image campaign in five years, and Al Jazeera America has revealed that it'll place one of its dozen US news bureaus in Detroit, which has one of America's largest populations of people of Arab descent.

The last several months have continued to be rough on the image of the Motor City despite the fact that the Detroit Three automakers have been coming back smartly, manufacturing in metro Detroit is re-expanding, the Red Wings qualified for this month's playoffs for an NHL-record 22 years, Motown: The Musical has debuted on Broadway, and there's a genuine and substantial influx of workers and denizens back in the battered downtown of Detroit.

Still, the city has struggled to find its footing as Michigan instated an emergency financial manager on a resistant Detroit city government, and residents and tourists alike have struggled to "Say Nice Things About Detroit."Continue reading...

Before NBC’s The Office hit the airwaves nine seasons ago, the folks of Scranton, Penn., were a little weary about a sitcom calling the coal-mining town home. After all, as the Scranton Times Tribune points out, the city had been the butt of jokes on All in the Family, Friends, and The Sopranos. The Championship Season, the 1973 Pulitzer winner for Drama about a high school championship team in Scranton that gets together 20 years later, doesn’t exactly leave theatergoers feeling like they want to rush off to visit the place.

Now, the series that focuses on the employees of the Dunder Mifflin paper company is coming to a close and Scrantonites seem to be pleased with how the series gave “a steady supply of residual pop culture cachet.” That cachet won’t come to an end when the series airs its final episode on May 16. It’ll fade with time, but Office love is probably at its peak in Scranton right about now, especially after the show’s cast members, writers and creative team paid a visit this past weekend as part of a big “Wrap Party,” Entertainment Weekly reports.

Along with them came about 10,000 fans who wanted to celebrate the legacy of the sitcom. The stars of the show were paraded through town, signed autographs with fans, sang old tunes to the adoring masses and sat through an extended Q&A.Continue reading...

"I cried three times through the entire movie and when Allison finally 'sees' Frank in the mirror, I completely lost it!… I want to go to Seattle, and then to New York!"

That reaction of a Weibo user to seeing the new blockbuster Chinese rom-com Finding Mr. Right is not uncommon. It's the kind of reaction that led Chinese tourism site tuniu.com to find in a recent survey that inquiries about Seattle by Chinese tourists jumped 120 percent in the last week of March, when the film debuted.

Seattle isn't letting the opportunity go to waste either, with its China-side marketing team leveraging the film's huge popularity to drive interest from a group that has become the world's most lucrative tourism demographic. A demographic that is increasingly taking its cues from popular movies, but only those that can emotionally connect.Continue reading...

Benjamin Franklin, Dr. J and the fictional Rocky Balboa have all resided in completely different versions of Philadelphia, but each showcases a different part of the City of Brotherly Love. Now, Philly’s tourism gurus are looking to showcase a slew of different views of the city to potential visitors by showcasing different neighborhoods.

It used to be that colonial-America relics, the Art Museum steps and images of soft pretzels and cheesesteaks were what sold Philly to outsiders, but consumers are a bit more discerning now, so Philly’s tourism board is using its varied neighborhoods to help draw people there. The city has launched its Philadelphia Neighborhoods site, which highlights 14 different areas of the city. According to a press release, the site features “600 new pages of content, photography, mapping, videos and a consumer-generated Instagram feed.”Continue reading...

Shopping bags at Disney theme parks are generally overstuffed with Mickey ears, Dumbo stuffed animals and Little Mermaid outfits. Soon, though, those bags—at least the ones at Disney World—may be packed with plenty of non-Disney merchandise.

Disney World’s Downtown Disney is getting a revamp and expansion that is scheduled to be finished in 2016 and will result in a change of name to Disney Springs and a total change of sensibility. It will feature “uniquely Disney venues coupled with high profile third parties” and will mean the end for nightclub spot Pleasure Island, Fox News reports. Instead, Disney Springs will get a makeover that will include “Spanish revival architecture amidst a retail setting with waterfront dining.”Continue reading...

As criticism raged Tuesday over surprise news that wrestling would be eliminated in the 2020 Summer Games, another Olympic controversy wasn't getting as much attention: How have so many tickets to the upcoming Winter Games already disappeared?

Tickets for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia went on sale this week, priced from 500 rubles (about $16 USD) for the ice hockey group games and up to 50,000 rubles (over $1,600 USD) for the opening ceremony. The Games in the Black Sea resort city will feature 98 medal events — 12 more than the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.

Surely, the Olympics are undoubtedly popular. But some wondered how the majority of a tickets available online could possibly sell out within the first few hours after being made available on Feb. 7.Continue reading...

When a state or a city becomes synonymous with a tragedy or urban decline, how does it move forward? 

Colorado is the latest state to face this question in the wake of last summer's mass shooting in Aurora. As the nation grapples with gun control, mental illness and public safety after a rash of gun violence, Colorado is left with an issue of perception beyond its borders. 

"When something hits the press and it may not be good, Colorado gets known for that," Jeff Donaldson, account director for the state’s new brandCO program, told the Denver Post. "Our goal as a state should be to have a brand that rises above all that."Continue reading...