PRESS
Brooklyn Chamber President Scissura and BP Adams Announce Partnership on Revamped Brooklyn Tourism Visitors Center and Gift Shop
February 4, 2016
Brooklyn Chamber President Scissura and BP Adams Announce Partnership on Revamped Brooklyn Tourism Visitors Center and Gift Shop
Today, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Carlo A. Scissura and Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams unveiled a partnership, along with One Brooklyn Fund Inc., the official non-profit organization affiliated with the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President, on a revamped Brooklyn Tourism Visitors Center and Gift Shop, an interactive information hub located in Brooklyn Borough Hall that provides tourists with guidance on what to do and see in the borough.
First opened by former Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, the office has been updated with iPad stations that provide a high-tech point-of-sale system for the gift shop as well as visitor access to Explore Brooklyn, the borough’s dedicated tourism website; through the partnership, the Brooklyn Tourism and Visitor Center will also serve as the physical home for ExploreBK.com, helping to generate and share content on dining, lodging, recreation, and shopping options across the borough. Additionally, the Brooklyn Chamber is working with its members to stock the center with Brooklyn-Made products to help promote local artisans and small businesses. Brooklyn Chamber President Scissura and Borough President Adams highlighted the importance of ensuring Brooklyn fully benefits from the recent boom in tourism; an estimated 15 million people visited the borough in 2014 alone.
“Brooklyn is one of the world’s most iconic places, and in recent years, it has become a destination for millions of international and domestic visitors alike,” said Brooklyn Chamber President & CEO Carlo A. Scissura. “With the opening of our new, state-of-the-art Explore Brooklyn Visitor Center, the Chamber and Borough President Eric Adams will ensure that tourists enjoy an authentic Brooklyn experience and take advantage of everything the borough has to offer. Through the Visitor Center, each neighborhood across Brooklyn — from Coney Island and Sheepshead Bay to Crown Heights and Brownsville — will be promoted to tourists, so they spend their time and money in our businesses. I’m thrilled to partner with the Borough President to create this new home for Brooklyn tourism.”
“The popularity of our brand must translate into prosperity for all Brooklynites, and tourism is a vehicle to achieve that mission,” said Borough President Adams. “Reinvigorating the Brooklyn Tourism Visitors Center and Gift Shop has long been a dream of mine, and the partnership with the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce is turning that into reality. Tourists want a memorable experience when they travel, and our new and improved center will set the stage for a day trip, weekend getaway, or longer excursion that excites their senses and expands their horizons. Efforts like these are reflective of my commitment to helping maximize the dollars generated through local tourism right here in our borough.”
Brooklyn Chamber President Scissura and Borough President Adams also thanked New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) Commissioner Lisette Camillo for her agency’s collaboration on redesigning the center to include brand-new graphic wall displays, featuring images of historic Brooklyn landmarks, as well as producing promotional banners to attract street traffic.
The Brooklyn Tourism Visitors Center and Gift Shop continues to feature historic photographs of local attractions, memorabilia related to the Brooklyn Dodgers and other borough institutions, and guides to places of interest. Honoring the connection between Brooklyn’s past and present, it includes an ongoing exhibit on local sections of the Underground Railroad in Brooklyn that enabled slaves in their search for freedom, created in collaboration with the Weeksville Heritage Center. The center also presents a rotating display with various aspects of the borough’s history, curated by Brooklyn Borough Historian Ron Schweiger.
-30-