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9/11 Outreach Effort Criticized


WSJ - 5/20/11
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Michael Howard Saul 

 

The head of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum plans to travel to
California to market the museum at a major travel industry convention,
raising concerns among some 9/11 victims' family members about the potential
commercialization of the World Trade Center site. 

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday New York City will launch next month a
marketing campaign designed to promote Lower Manhattan as a travel
destination in advance of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks. The memorial will begin welcoming visitors in September. 

Next week, Joe Daniels, the memorial's president, will join George Fertitta,
head of NYC & Company, the city's tourism bureau, at the U.S. Travel
Association's International Pow Wow Conference in San Francisco, a confab
that links tourism operators and industry executives. 

Some family members of 9/11 victims voiced concerns on Thursday about Mr.
Daniels attending the conference and the marketing of the site to tourists. 

"I just have this growing concern that this commercialization is taking
precedence over people who want to come purely to pay respect to the
dead--that is what this should be about," said Sally Regenhard, who lost her
son, Christian, a probationary firefighter, in the attacks. 

"The fact that there is a push to include this in a tourism initiative
really confirms to me the inappropriateness of having human remains in the
museum," said Ms. Regenhard, who has been deeply critical of officials'
plans to place remains seven stories below ground in the museum. 

Retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches, who lost his son, Jimmy, also a
firefighter, said, "They don't have to go out and sell this museum. Everyone
knows it's there." 

He called Mr. Daniels's trip to San Francisco "outrageous" and
"unnecessary." 

City and memorial officials said they were surprised by the criticism. 

"One of the things that we have to do is to tell everybody about what
happened and to make sure that our children...remember," Mr. Bloomberg said.
"Joe [Daniels] should be out there. He should be traveling as much as he can
to get people to come here and so we can tell the story." 

Mr. Daniels said the purpose of the trip is to "facilitate the visiting
process." 

"Being able to go to a tourism conference, talk directly to the tour
operators, it just makes it much easier," he said. "It's better for New
York, so that people understand the rules, that we're having a time
reservation system, that we're encouraging transportation other than charter
buses." 

Kari Watkins, executive director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial &
Museum, said she fully understands the family members' concerns. Family
members in Oklahoma City voiced similar concerns, and now, 16 years after
the bombing of the federal courthouse, emotions are still raw, she said. 

But Ms. Watkins said it's vital for institutions such as the Oklahoma and
9/11 memorials to market themselves. 

"If you don't do something that gets the visitors to that [site], then
really you're jeopardizing telling your story," she said. "For us, it's an
educational mission. It's about teaching the senselessness of violence." 

A spokesman for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington said museum
officials will not be at the San Francisco conference and typically do not
attend these types of events. 

Write to Michael Howard Saul at [email protected] 

Credit: By Michael Howard Saul 

(c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Reproduced with permission of copyright
owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without
permission.

 

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