Destination City
During a telephone call a few months ago with a preacher, he used an expression that caught my attention and led to this post. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee. In fact, he grew up in Nashville and has been in Nashville for most, if not all, of his life.
At one point in the conversation, we were discussing how the population of Nashville has been increasing in recent years. According to one source I consulted, the population of The Nashville Metro Area in 2000 was about 750,000 and now about 1,350,000 people live there. If my math is correct, that means that the population has increased by an average 24,000 people each year for twenty-five years. It is little wonder that those who need to travel through or get around in Nashville complain about the traffic.
At some point in the conversation, the preacher told me that he really liked Nashville better before it became a destination city. I’m not sure that I’d ever heard that description before, but I thought I understood what he meant. When I looked online, I discovered that my understanding was correct – partially. What I discovered was that the term “Destination City” has a specific meaning in the business community. Among those people, they may be talking about the destination of products, supplies, etc.
I also learned that “Destination City” can also refer to a city that has become sort of a “hub” for such things as shopping, entertainment, tourism, and similar things. I got the impression that this was what the brother on the phone was talking about. I guess that it could also be said that a city becomes a destination city when it is no longer a place to travel through and becomes a place to travel to.
In fact, I thought that my brother had something in mind in addition to that. It seemed that he was regretting the fact that, during his lifetime, Nashville has transitioned from a place to go through – to a place to go to – to a place to go to and stay.
So – what is this really all about? Did you catch the fact in the first sentence that I was having a conversation with a preacher? Some who read this may know that I spent most of my adult life in that role and that I still preach from time to time.
During that conversation and repeatedly since then my mind has thought of what I suppose could be called “The Ultimate Destination City.” You can make your own comparisons, but one of the more obvious ones is that a destination city is a place that is important to people.
The word “goal” comes to mind. When people have a goal and are serious about it, they make sure that sufficient planning and preparation is involved in order to achieve that goal.
So – what this is all about is that a somewhat casual conversation helped me to realize that I need to make sure that I am serious about the planning I am doing and the preparation I am making in order for me to be in…
the ultimate and eternal Destination City.
How about you?
AUTHOR: Jim Faughn
