Category Archives: Queens Tourist

Tourists Have Landed in Queens. They’re Staying

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How would you describe the reporting/interviewing in this article?

After reading the article, I felt that Kirk Semple was able to prove his point of view about an increase in tourists in Queens. After Lonely Planet named Queens the number one travel destination in the US for 2015, Semple’s straightforward reporting and his use of statistics from different sources, interviews of important officials and tourists in Queens all helped aid this point. This article definitely let me know as the reader that there are people traveling to Queens and discovering what the borough has to offer. As a Native New Yorker and resident of the Bronx, I was quite surprised to see the increase in popularity in Queens as it isn’t that close to Manhattan. Once I read that there are new hotels being constructed in Queens it did make more sense that people are visiting/staying there since both of the main NYC airports are located in Queens, and hotel rates are cheaper than in Manhattan. Although I enjoyed this article and thought that it was very informative, I did see a hole in the reporting since there were no interviews from Native Queens residents. I feel like Semple could have included more interviews from the locals in order to make this point stronger. For example, the interview with Ms. Sidibe where she asks “where is Queens?” could have been an opportunity to close with a local reacting to the increase in tourists. Even so, this article was certainly a refreshing take and angle on neighborhood reporting, and I walked away with something I didn’t know before I read it!

 

Tourists in Queens

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Describe the reporting and interviewing techniques used by Kirk Semple in this story.

In this story Kirk Semple started off with some background information and goes into the topic of the story, that being that Queens is the number one travel destination in the United States. The headline alone before reading the story surprised me and drew me into really wanting to know what made Queens the place tourists did not want to leave. Semple made the reader believe and understand when he emphasized that Queens and not Miami or Manhattan etc., but Queens was the number one travel destination. Also the facts and quotes used in the story made the story so compelling, like the number increase of visitors and number of hotels built or in plan of construction. What really stood out to me were the quotes made by the visitors themselves. The quotes made the story relatable, the visitors explained the wants of something authentic, and being someone that travels myself I understand the want of something authentic from a different place rather than just visiting the famous sites. Finally ending the story with a quote that completely conflicts what the entire story was trying to explain and prove, leaving the reader in a awkward but questioning position, I thought that was very interesting.

Response to: Tourist Have Landed in Queens. They’re Staying.

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The author Kirk Semple uses statistics about tourism and talks about the growing amount of hotels being developed in Queens to emphasize that the borough is, or has the potential to, become a new tourist attraction for travelers visiting New York City.

Semple’s main interviewee is Rob McKay, who is the director of Public relations and marketing for the Queens economic development corporation. The most interesting quote used by Semple is that by Mr. McKay, where he quotes a french journalist talking about Long Island City and how everyone in Paris loves it. This is interesting because Semple decides to quote the french journalist within the McKay quote, making it a quote within a quote.

Overall, I found Semple’s reporting style very effective in terms of painting a picture of the type of tourist attraction Queens is becoming. Semple uses descriptive language and also includes some negative aspects of Queens, such as the ugly architecture, as a premise to his main proposition describing Queens as an authentic, multicultural place to visit.

Tourists Have Landed in Queens. They’re Staying.

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Kirk Semple presents an interesting outline about Queens contending as No.1 travel destination in the United States entitling: “Tourists Have Landed in Queens. They’re Staying.” The article, despite its witty and charming word choices interspersed throughout the article, it lacks significant and substantial reporting. Reading the article it seems that it is filled with unsupported thoughts. For example, the fifth sentence is an unclear point that strays away from Lonely Planet’s decision to name Queens the No.1. The fifth sentence is needless words that doesn’t provide the “why” but instead inadvertently delays Semple’s abstruse evidence that render Queens as No.1. Based on the headline I expected to hear from Lonely Planet explaining its decision and to hear more extensively from tourists describing Queens specific characteristics that lured them to visit or lodge in Queens. I was expecting to hear about events in the last year that trumped events on Manhattan and other parts of United States.

 

Tourists in Queens

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Kirk’s reporting used arguments of both side that praised Queen’s increase in tourism and also gives the statistics some doubt. I think this was a very good tactic because every story needs both side of  the spectrum. If we only read the positives of how much Queen’s tourism has increased then we would’ve never known some of the negative aspects that still exist in promoting greater tourism. For example, the article  emphasizes that development of hotels and attractions play an important role in tourism. Queens doesn’t have much of that compared to Manhattan. It only seems appropriate that there would be doubt because, even as a Queen’s resident myself, I find it hard to believe that Queens is the #1 travel destination in the U.S for 2015. There is even doubt recognized from his interviewees. One tourists was confused about where Queens was, it is mentioned that sometimes tourists take the wrong train and end up in Queens, and there is also a limited mount of time they have when it comes to exploring outside of Manhattan. I think these problems that exists when it comes to tourism in Queens is important to mention because it’s not enough to just praise how much Queen’s tourism has improved.

Tourists Have Landed in Queens. They’re Staying

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The reporting done for this article was not as good as I had anticipated. Being a Queens native, I expected a lot more from this article, given the rich history of the borough, but the article lacked depth and had poor sourcing. For starters, the feature’s title doesn’t even resonate with the story. While tourists are discovering that Queens is a lot more hip than it was in previous years, they clearly are not here to stay, and some tourists (like the last anecdote in the piece) do not even know what Queens is. Even the feature’s opening story did not do the piece justice. There was a lot of fill-in material that may have been used to hit a word count rather than support a strong thesis in the story. For example, when mentioning that Queens is the No.1 travel destination, the writer then lists other popular cities that are not chosen as the top destination. It is arbitrary, and excess information to early in the piece. The sourcing of information and interviewing was poor. As a Queens native, I instantly knew that the author was referring to the sitcom King of Queens, but he fails to mention that, rather using fill-in words to fluff the article. It seemed as though Rob MacKay was the only person he got the chance to speak to. One instance that bothered me was the quoting of someone else quoting another person. The conversation that was quoted was, again, a fluff to the article.

The writer could have explored more in depth what Queens has to offer to tourists. There were several brief mentions of places, but what makes them so relevant. A cultured Astoria, with museums like P.S.1 deserves far more than a mention in the piece. Corona is one of the more diverse areas in Queens with different cuisines that cost a fraction of the price they would in Manhattan. I was upset to find that Lemon Iced King was not even mentioned but an indirect reference to the sitcom King of Queens was made. Instead, the article was filled with a plethora of adjectives that become agitating to read over and over.

Queens Tourist Story

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Kirk Semple does a great job with his reporting and interviewing techniques to answer the main question any reader would be having, “what exactly is so appealing about Queens and who on Earth would want to travel there?!”

Semple shows us exactly why Queens could be an interesting destination by listing all there is to do, like various museums and athletic events. He makes it more than just a borough overlooked by most New Yorkers and makes it real by also listing the number of hotels it boasts, and the increase in visitors.

Another crucial aspect Semple covers is interviewing tourists who actually want to visit Queens, since it’s probably the least believable, even after all the data Semple brings. Hearing from the French and Italian that actually couldn’t wait to visit Queens really made the story.

Queens Tourists response

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I’ll be honest and say, while I enjoyed this article (and recognized the name of one of the people on the tourism panel described in the first paragraph), I don’t think the style it was written in stood out as something fantastic. In fact, I think the piece had several flaws.

For one, there’s several places where vague terms or phrases are used. Semple mentions in the second paragraph that the “celebrity of the event” was an advertising executive from Lonely Planet, but he fails to actually name that executive. That’s not exactly information that has to be kept secret, is it? He’s also vague on where, when, and for what purpose the panel on tourism was taking place, and who “the audience” was. There is at least one spot where he is unclear in what he means–on the bottom of the fifth page he makes reference to “the travel guide company” but doesn’t name it. Does he mean Lonely Planet? If so, it’s not immediately obvious; before page five, he refers to LP by name twice on page one and that’s it. Readers who aren’t familiar with LP might get confused.
Finally, he makes reference to “Queens enthusiasts” but fails to really specify what he means–are they residents? People in the tourism industry? News reporters and journalists? Who exactly are the Queens enthusiasts who promote “the array of cultural institutions?”

That last point feeds into an issue with sourcing. The most important and most relevant quotes, in my opinion, came from three people, all of whom work for NYC & Company. Of those quotes, most seemed to come from Mr. MacKay, or at least that was my impression. From the journalism classes I’ve taken so far, I’ve learned that for a topic this broad,  it’s not good to only have one or two sources. NYC & Company certainly would be an important source for this sort of story, but I feel that he should’ve spoken to at least one other tourism agency, and especially one devoted solely to Queens.

Finally, some of the quotes didn’t seem important. The very first quote in the article adds absolutely nothing to the story because Semple didn’t identify the LP executive, didn’t explain what made him so important that he “should’ve been carried into the room,” and doesn’t mention him again in the article.

The references to aluminum siding seem really off the mark as well, but I don’t know if that’s because I don’t understand them. Either way, I don’t see how MacKay’s quote about the Woody Allen film are relevant to the story. Surely there was a more fitting quote he could’ve used? Maybe something about the various industrial zones in the borough or a quote about the “inadequate public transportation” he mentions?

I feel that the ending, at least, sums up what the article tried to convey: Queens is growing in popularity, but still has a way to go before it’s as well known or visited as Brooklyn or Manhattan. I also thought that in terms of facts, the article was pretty thorough in covering growth in the tourism and hotel industries, and I felt it did justice to the sights Queens has to offer.

Overall, I think this article, while not being entirely terrible, is severely lacking.

Queens Tourists

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Describe the reporting and interviewing techniques used by Kirk Semple in this story.

In the article, “Tourists Have Landed in Queens. They’re Staying,” Kirk Semple uses distinct reporting and interviewing techniques. Semple immediately provides the readers with the proper background information that surprisingly Queens has been named the number one destination spot in 2015. He admits that this information is shocking to him just like it will be to the readers. Like any good reporter should do, he incorporates a variety of quotes from different people ranging from professionals in marketing to tourists themselves. Semple quotes Rob MacKay, director of public relations for the Queens Economic Development Corporation, who says that Queens is a place people are happy to visit. Semple takes this quote and supports it with data that proves there is an increase in visitors. He also shows a tourist’s excitement to visit a cafe however, he fails to incorporate residents’ views. Semple gives his readers examples of some cultural institutions, sports arenas, and hotels that are attracting a lot of tourists. Lastly, he makes sure to include that although there are attempts to make Queens hip it will never be like New York. He ends the article in a rather funny way with a conversation with two women who were confused and didn’t really hear much about Queens. This gives the readers both sides of the story–how great Queens can be and why it’s not known.

Queens Tourist

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I thought Semple’s writing of the tourists in Queens article is a hybrid of traditional and non-traditional forms of journalism. Towards the beginning, Semple uses words and phrases such as “all-star lineup”, “celebrity of event” and “No. 1” as a way to describe Queens, the borough. The style seemed very laid back, as if Queens is the underdog rising up to the professional level of metropolitan tourism. However, as the article goes on, the author uses percentages and dates, cold hard data, to emphasize Queens’ lead in the increased percentage of tourists, surpassing Brooklyn and big dog Manhattan.

One factor I thought the author could have touched upon is the missing voice of the local resident living in Queens. How do actual residents living in Long Island City feel about tourists? My thoughts could be that it may kick some of the residents out to the outskirts of Staten Island. I’d like to think of it as a social tsunami of tourism and gentrification: first Manhattanites get kicked out from their homes, then people living in Brooklyn get swept away for $7.00 cups of coffee. It seems as if Queens is next.