Hire An Author To Boost Tourism

The people of Florence (Fiorenze if you prefer) have seen tourism decline, following the downward trajectory of the global economy. Dependent on those visitors and their foreign cash influx, the local government would embrace anything that would reverse the trend and boost income.

The answer to the problem is rather simple.

Hire an author to write a book set in your city.

You could pick up a copy of THE KING OF THE IRISH and make your own walking tour of Chicago, but not everything mentioned in the novel, set in 1889, is still standing.

The courthouse where Dan Coughlin was tried for a murder he did not commit remains in place, but it is the location of his second trial. The original structure where he watched his American dream become a nightmare was razed years ago. The streets he walked are still there, as is the prison building in Joliet where he fought to survive and win a chance to prove his innocence.

The river is still where he explored it during a search for the body of Dr. Patrick Cronin, although not flowing in the same direction. As for the backdrop, the addition of skyscrapers over the years has completely altered the scenery.

Not so in Florence, a town that has remained unchanged, looking largely the same as it did when Dante Alighieri walked its cobbled streets and wrote his Inferno saga.

And so the latest literary walking tour enters the tourism trade, with Florentines hoping that the readers will come, clutching their copies of Dan Brown's latest conspiracy treatment.

Like his other two novels, the upcoming adventure of the fictional Robert Langdon will provide enough description to create a virtual map of the protagonist's movements as he tries to solve the latest mystery.

Home Insurance Building

Tourists doing the tour will pay for hotel, meals, souvenirs, and entrance fees for the very architectural treasures described in the pages of Dan Brown's novel. The people of Florence would very much like such a scenario to play out in their city. They need the money.

They could see what happened with tourism numbers at the Vatican after Angels and Demons generated buzz among readers. Everyone marvelled at the vast population of literary tourists who descended on Paris after The DaVinci Code became a blockbuster hit.

Is your local tourism board wondering how to boost visitors to the town? Why not suggest they hire Dan Brown to write a book about your place?

You'd have to be living in an interesting place, however. Some city that retained its ancient charm, unlike Chicago which gave the world its first skyscraper and then tore it down to put up something new.