From this Sunday’s Travel section of the NYT:

For
nine years, the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation has
been working to make Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell/Benjamin Franklin
image appeal more specifically to African Americans, students, seniors,
families and, most recently, gays and lesbians. Now Philadelphia is
figuring out how best to say bienvenidos to Hispanics.

"Our
goal is to raise Philadelphia’s visibility as a new destination to one
of the fastest-growing populations in America," Meryl Levitz, president
of the tourism organization, said in an e-mail.

At stake for
cheese-steak central and its five-county region is a larger piece of
the $37.2 billion that Hispanics spend on domestic travel, according to
numbers determined in 2003 by the Travel Industry Association of
America.

Philadelphia’s tourism corporation expects to spend
some $900,000 in the next three years to attract Hispanics, according
to Ms. Levitz. Already there is a twice-yearly tour, called "Latin
Flavor, Latin Soul," of the neighborhood of El Centro de Oro (the next
tour is Sept. 10). By August, the corporation’s Web site, www.gophila.com, will have an area  addressing Hispanic travelers.

In
the meantime there are three 15-second commercials on Telemundo in
Philadelphia (part of local sponsorship of the Latin Music Awards ) and
print ads in both national and New York City Spanish-language
publications like Hispanic Magazine and El Diario/La Prensa, among
other efforts like research at local conventions of Hispanic
organizations.

Philadelphia is not alone. Tourism initiatives
have been developed nationwide in other cities and states, like
Illinois and Louisiana. Even the Royal Caribbean cruise line started a
Spanish-language Web site in 2004.
PAMELA NOEL