Houston Tourism Ideas (Austin, Center, Earth: amusement park, home, moving)

[glorplaxy]

What do you think the city could do to bring more tourism to Houston?

It seems that most people who come to Houston from out of town are here on business, and almost never for pleasure.

I, personally, thought it'd be awesome if they did something to the bayous and actually started using them for transit, with small boats running up and down as ferries. They would have to do a lot of cleaning and fix a lot of things up to do that, but it'd be great, especially since bayous run pretty much everywhere, including downtown.

[SteveArmy]

put houston on the map by having a world class race track, get for formula1, GT, ALMS races. we got enough international tycoons and flat land

[jfre81]

So you suggest we will become the next hot location if we have some paddleboats or something going up and down the bayous?

We could do more with the bayous but they are never going to be a practical means of people moving.

Personally I think we're doing just fine without having to go out of our way to draw in tourists. And before we even think about that we might look at addressing more immediate needs, like building out transit infrastructure that will work and not just be a novelty.

[glorplaxy]

I never said anything about practicality. I was talking about drawing tourism.

I also never said anything about being the next hot location. I said more tourism than what we have now.

I, also, was never talking about a serious infrastructure plan.

Didn't mean paddleboats. I just thought it'd be nice to use the bayou. People like to be on the water, even if it's not the most effective method of transport. Look at the boats going up and down the river in Austin. I wouldn't want boats that big, but small boats...long ones.

Floating markets would be awesome.

Also, things like transportation infrastructure really grow when tourism starts coming in. Didn't you notice the difference between pre-Superbowl and post-superbowl downtown?

[Trae713]

We'll be fine after Earth Quest Adventures opens. Maybe fix up the JSC and make it more like Epcot or something.

[tstone]

I guess this is the closest we have

Guided Canoe Tour : Armand Bayou Nature Center

Pontoon Boat Cruises : Armand Bayou Nature Center

[rigas]

houston is not built for tourism, it is to centered on big business. look at astroworld as a prime example. houston is to big, traffic is to bad, and there is just no real market for it. why would houston NEED tourism? places like san antonio or corpus christi need tourism and they are set up around it. just not a realistic thing for houston.

[Txgal33]

Originally Posted by Scarface713

We'll be fine after Earth Quest Adventures opens. Maybe fix up the JSC and make it more like Epcot or something.

Is that the dinoworld that is suppose to be up here past Kingwood??? I was wondering if it was still a go or not. I know my boys would LOVE it!

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by rigas

houston is not built for tourism, it is to centered on big business. look at astroworld as a prime example. houston is to big, traffic is to bad, and there is just no real market for it. why would houston NEED tourism? places like san antonio or corpus christi need tourism and they are set up around it. just not a realistic thing for houston.

AW existed for decades and was ran into the ground by Six Flags' mismanagement. But it was mainly for locals, not so much for tourists. Not that people who didn't happen to be visiting Houston didn't go there.

Nobody travels very far to go to an amusement park unless it's Disney, which is why you won't be seeing that here. No way they could fleece people for the kind of money they do if it was in everyone's backyard.

[SteveArmy]

"tourist ideas" for kids? is this stay at home mom hour?