Living in North Texas for a few years now I have come to realize a few things; Here life is Sports, Food & Entertainment and thus folk’s live life in a way that is the embodiment of “Work Hard Live Hard”.
The northern part of the DFW metroplex is what is best described as “suburbia”, clean, safe, and somewhat boring. Unless you look at a map that doesn’t just show the expansive (toll) roads bringing folks to work in downtown Dallas, the manicured city parks of cities like Frisco and McKinney and the strategically placed business center around the Dallas Cowboys training location you wouldn't realize these towns have more to offer.
There is more, way more actually and it is some of the best tings one can spend their time and money on when “living hard”. I am not just talking about the Texas BBQ, which obviously is the absolute best. It is a diversity in food and entertainment available to the locals and business folks that fly in and out to these new headquarters like Toyota of North America, Frito-Lay, and other global brands.
This region is already showing an attraction for folks from out of town, with thousands coming in just for Nebraska Furniture Mart and their limitless assortment of "stuff", there actually is a silent opportunity here for real destination tourism beyond sofa's and cabinets.
For years all towns in south Denton & Collin County have been positioning themselves and they all have a different offering to its visitors. What is obvious when one zooms out it is the destination corridor that has appeared in this region that needs our attention. Anchored near the airport by the “OG”; Great Wolf Lodge resort with their water park there is a 25-mile-long line of attractions that currently end in Frisco, right where PGA is located and Universal announced their new theme park on January 11th. This destination corridor is an incredible mix of attractions for families with thrills, edutainment, cultural and historical titbits scattered around.
Not every great brand that one can find along this corridor needs listing here, a quick look at the header image will hopefully give a bit of an idea of some of the brands that line this highway. Just looking at this mix, a family’s stay to visit the outstanding and unique attractions, incredible retail and class leading sports facilities can fill a week real fast. And that's not all, expanding the diversity of activities can be achieved by enjoying an under-one-hour road trip. A quick drive can get visitors to the original entertainment hub of DFW; Grand Prairie/Arlington, home to Six Flags Park, Ripley’s and AT&T stadium. Or, maybe add in a bit of culture by visiting the stockyards in Fort Worth or the incredible museums and art district in Dallas.
Destination tourism while staying along this entertainment corridor is just screaming out for more attention. Afterall there are thousands of hotel rooms available from no frills to all bells and whistles along the corridor for folks to rest and prepare for the next day of fun.
As a local I am not the target audience for joint corridor messaging, yet a google search does not immediately get results. This makes me wonder if, that although this destination corridor is known locally, the seeming fragmented approach to attracting people, from some of the other metros in the state or even folks from out of state, is not delivering the tourism trade there potentially is for the region. Working on projects in the past I was asked more than once; Why would someone go on vacation to Dallas? It is perceived as a fly-in-fly-out business destination.
The potential of attracting families like destinations as Branson and Pigeon Forge to the NTX corridor hopefully draws the local CVB’s to join forces and create a platform to position a joint program and advertise the NTX destination corridor. Could the newly announced Universal Theme Park maybe the trigger? Pre-Covid reports suggest that out of the 52 million people that visit the Dallas Fort-Worth Metroplex every year, only less than a third does so for non-work, sport or family. Which makes the case our region can make great strides in attracting folks to the NTX Entertainment corridor and support this flourishing industry, drive up hotel occupancy and capture secondary spend for local small businesses.
Exciting times ahead for our NTX region!
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