BRANSON MO NEWS: Tanner Zody popped into the Missouri Welcome Center in Joplin last week as he was making his way through the state.“I have a whole bunch of cousins who live here, and we visit different areas like Branson or the Ozarks,” he said.The Missouri Division of Tourism operates a number of these centers, offering brochures on popular destinations, travel advice and more, and each is a point of contact for people entering a state that has recently found itself targeted by one top guidebook publisher as a place travelers should skip.
Although Missouri is home to many iconic destinations, including the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and Branson, not to mention 313 miles of historic Route 66, the state recently earned a spot on “Fodor’s No List 2018,” which is a list of travel destinations the publication recommends people avoid.GuidebookFodor’s Travel has been used as a guidebook for tourists for eight decades and has information on more than 7,000 destinations around the globe, according to its website. To view the travel publication’s complete “no list,” visit www.fodors.com/news/photos/fodors-no-list-2018.That puts Missouri in a class with places such as Honduras, because of its high murder rate, particularly members of the LGBT community; and Myanmar, with accusations of human rights violations aimed at Rohingya, a Muslim minority; and Beijing, because of air pollution.Zody, 22, of Indianapolis, said he wasn’t familiar with the controversy but said it wouldn’t deter him from visiting tourist attractions in Missouri.“What they (Fodor’s) said wouldn’t keep me from coming back,” Zody said.PushbackThe Fodor’s list is getting pushback from tourism promoters in Missouri, but it has the support of at least one group, the NAACP, which last August issued its first travel advisory targeting Missouri. That advisory, which is …
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