Why Butch Spyridon rejects ‘It city’ label for Nashville
Nashville Business Journal interviews president of Nashville Convention Center.
Butch Spyridon, president of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp., loves the national media attention and travel rankings Nashville has been receiving in the past year.
But don’t call Nashville the next “it” city, he said in an interview this week.
“I love the rankings, but I am offended by words like The New York Times’ ‘it’ city,” Spyridon said. “It’s temporary. It’s flash in the pan. We are built on a stronger foundation than that. I think we are here to stay.”
Nashville has enjoyed the limelight from GQ, Bon Appetit, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and most recently by Conde Nast Traveler as a top five place in the world to go in 2013. The city has also gained traction on television from ABC’s “Nashville” and the Grammy Nominations Concert on CBS in December.
As Spyridon and other tourism leaders prepare for the May opening of the Music City Center, the city will have to demonstrate it is more than the latest trend.
“Now the challenge might be don’t believe your own press clippings, (to) sustain it and sustain it in a viable, authentic way,” he said.