Kansas City’s Legoland attraction at Crown Center has been a
tremendous plus for KC area and regional tourism. The Lego Group boasts of $5 billion in
revenue with individual sites attracting 400,000 to 600,000 local citizens and
tourists per year. To put that in
perspective, that is 3 to 4 times the visitors that walk in the doors of all 16
heritage tourism sites in the Independence in spite of our annual investment of
$1.4 million of public money for marketing.
The Lego Group’s parent company, Danish firm Merlin Entertainments,
boasts of 60 million guests per year in their international market. As a corporate goal, they work directly with
local groups to promote local attractions by re-creating in miniature local
tourism sites and landmarks from Legos which is quite interesting and creative
in itself. And because a majority of its
patrons are young people, this effort connects our youth to these important
sites also. History that is presented and taught to our children plays a vital role in shaping their values and beliefs. These types of
public/private partnerships, especially those connected to our youth, are valuable in supporting and sustaining local tourism programs which translates
to local economic development, increased tax revenue, and community pride. It’s a winning combination unless you are
talking about Independence. Earlier in
the year, I observed at Legoland a Lego re-creation of the very ornate
Victorian Truman Home pictured above situated on a very prominent corner at
Truman Road and Delaware Street in the heart of the Truman National Historic
Landmark District in Independence.
Unfortunately it was labeled as the “Harry S. Truman Farm Home, also
known as the Soloman Young Farm, the Harry S. Truman Farm Home was the resident
of the Future President from 1907-1917” which is in Grandview, Missouri. Oh well, I guess that is close enough for the
KC folks. In the age of information
technology, we have to do a better job with educating our youth and citizens
about our own local and national histories.
I noticed this blunder back in July.
Now I’m wondering if it has been fixed yet.
