Atlanta poised for major tourism push

ATLANTA -- It's the city of Martin Luther King Jr., Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, and Outkast, the duo behind the "Hey Ya!" smash hit -- not to mention home to Coca-Cola, CNN and "Gone With The Wind."

Yet Atlanta has always struggled to crystallize all that it is into an image the rest of the world can embrace.

Nothing summed up that futility more than during the run-up to the 1996 Summer Olympics, when Atlanta unveiled its mascot of the games, Izzy -- an amorphous blob.

"Atlantans love their city, but the word has not traveled as far as we would have hoped," Mayor Shirley Franklin acknowledged in October as she announced a new, $4.5 million campaign to brand the city for tourists.

The campaign coincides with the debut of what is billed as the world's largest aquarium on Nov. 23; the Nov. 12 opening of three new buildings at the High Museum of Art; a new retail center, Atlantic Station, and two new boutique hotels scheduled to open next year.

The city has also unveiled a flashy new red-and-white logo and a new theme song -- "The ATL" -- penned by Atlanta hip-hop producer Dallas Austin. A campaign slogan will be announced during a downtown concert Thursday.

It's all aimed at helping Atlanta catch up with cities such as Las Vegas and New York, where years of heavy marketing have paid off with ever-increasing tourism numbers.

For visitor Pam Grapatin, of Cleveland, there is clearly much work to be done.

"To be honest, being from Cleveland, you don't think too much about Atlanta except that it has a bunch of traffic," she said as she snapped pictures at Centennial Olympic Park. And she's a travel agent.

But tourism officials hope that several high-profile attractions and developments will bring new life to the hit-or-miss appeal of Atlanta's downtown.

A boutique hotel, Hotel Indigo, opened last year, and two more -- the TWELVE hotel and The Glenn Hotel -- will open in 2006, giving high-end leisure travelers an alternative to business and chain hotels. For vacationers who like to shop, the new Atlantic Station is a mix of chain stores like Banana Republic along with local shops like Metropolitan Deluxe, a gift-and-housewares store.

The Georgia Aquarium, bankrolled by Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus, claims to have 8 million gallons of exhibit space and 100,000 animals from 500 species -- including the only whalesharks on view in North America.

Officials at the High Museum hope their new gleaming white buildings, set on a landscaped public plaza, will help create an "arts village" where art-lovers and other pedestrians will gather, stroll along tree-lined paths and maybe drop in for a bite at one of several new eateries. Works of art on the plaza -- called Sifly Piazza -- include Roy Lichtenstein's whimsical "House III," which looks like a comic-strip house come to life.

The buildings, designed by the renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano, past winner of the Pritzker Prize, are filled with light from skyways and glass-enclosed pedestrian bridges. Inaugural exhibits will include a retrospective of the popular American artist Andrew Wyeth.

Another top local attraction, the "Inside CNN" studio tour, has undergone a $5.5 million overhaul to make it more interactive.

And looking down the road, in 2007, the World of Coca-Cola museum will move about a mile from its current spot to a site next door to the aquarium.

Atlanta is also one of five finalists for a NASCAR hall of fame that would sit across the street -- also near Centennial Park, CNN, the Georgia Dome and the Georgia World Congress Center.

"So much has happened, or is about to happen," Franklin said. "The time is right."

Visitors to the city may also want to consider visiting the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, which includes his birthplace, grave and the church where he preached.

"Gone With the Wind" fans can visit the birthplace of novelist Margaret Mitchell.

Low airfares and convenient flights can also help attract visitors, and those elements are already in place. Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, which rivals Chicago's O'Hare as the busiest airport in the country, is served by major carriers as well as discount airlines including Spirit, Song, Independence, Frontier and AirTran, which is based there.

The airport is an important transfer point for passengers heading to and from the Northeast, Midwest and Florida. The new tourism promotion could help persuade leisure travelers to make Atlanta their destination instead of just a place to change planes.

"As Brand Atlanta continues to roll out over the next month, you will begin to see the essence of Atlanta come to life," she said.