TriPod Xtras: Skift’s Rafat Ali On Civil Rights Tourism

In this edition of TriPod Xtras, Laine Kaplan-Levenson speaks with Rafat Ali, founder and CEO of Skift, a media company that looks at travel trends.  The two discuss a report his company published about civil rights Tourism in the Deep South.

The South has historically steered clear of slavery and Jim Crow when it comes to tourism marketing and focused on topics such as music and architecture. But civil rights museums are now becoming an important part of the South’s tourism economy, even though state tourism boards haven’t yet embraced this shift. Laine and Rafat discussed where southern states are when it comes to civil rights tourism, and why state boards should jump on board.

TriPod is a production of WWNO in collaboration with The Historic New Orleans Collection and the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies at the University of New Orleans.