International Marketing for Travel and Tourism The 32nd Atlanta Jazz Festival - Essay Example

The three dominant forces affecting Atlanta's history and development have been transportation, race relations, and the "Atlanta spirit." At each stage in the city's development, these three elements have come into play. Transportation innovations and their connections to Atlanta helped establish the city as a state and regional center of commerce and finance. And the Atlanta spirit-part civic booster program, part vision, with a healthy dose of business interests and priorities-has provided the city with an ever-changing set of goals and definitions of what Atlanta is and what it can become.

In the recent past, the city of Atlanta has gained familiarity and has transformed from a commercial city into a city with international influence and tourist attraction. In a very little span of 6 years i.e. from 2000 - 2006, the metropolitan area of the city of Atlanta increased by almost 20.5%. This has made Atlanta the fastest growing metropolitan city of the United States. Transportation has always been an important factor in the growth of the city of Atlanta and also its development, had a significant impact on the city in the 1960s and 1970s.

Atlanta's connections to three interstate highways continued during this period to direct and facilitate suburban growth and anchored the regional trucking industry to the city. Air travel also became increasingly important as Atlanta Municipal Airport emerged as one of the busiest air hubs in the nation. Office buildings and retail establishments followed this population growth and movement to the suburbs, especially on the north side of the city. In the transportation sector airplanes and automobiles continued to have the biggest impact on the metropolitan region.

Atlanta's dramatic population growth in the last few decades has been matched by equally impressive economic growth. The city is, by most measures, the business capital of the Southeast. Atlanta's ties to transportation include Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (one of the top two busiest airports in the world), three interstate highways that intersect in Atlanta, and a nexus of freight and passenger rail lines. All of these transportation connections bring commerce, products, and people to the Atlanta area and provide employment, either directly or indirectly, to many of the region's citizens.

Since the 1970s the hospitality, tourism, and convention industry has been another key element of Atlanta's economy, spurring the construction of new hotels, convention spaces, and related industries. From 1965 to 1975, for example, the number of hotel rooms in the downtown area alone increased from 4,000 to 14,000 and by 1972 Atlanta ranked third among cities in terms of convention business.Jazz Festival - Introduction: Renowned as the largest free jazz festival in the country, the Atlanta Jazz Festival is traditionally a Memorial Day Weekend celebration of a true American art form - Jazz.

This year marks the 28th anniversary of the Festival. The finale of the event will take place in Piedmont Park May 28th - 30th. The Atlanta Jazz Fe