Brad Dean, the brand-new president and CEO of Explore St. Louis, has been in town less than two weeks, but he’s already learned a few important things. Such as: Don’t rent an apartment in Soulard during Mardi Gras—unless you’re there for the party.
Unaware that the neighborhood had a previously scheduled commitment on March 8, Dean had planned to move that day from his short-term rental in Soulard to housing downtown. Upon venturing outside with his luggage, “ I had several young 20 somethings who politely alerted me that this was probably not the day to move,” he said ruefully. At least he can now vouch for the festival: “ I can honestly say it is the largest Mardi Gras parade outside of New Orleans.”
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Dean shared his thoughts on a new episode of The 314 Podcast that dropped this morning. In it, he discussed how he ran the tourism agencies for both Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Puerto Rico before accepting the job in St. Louis—and turned down jobs in bigger cities because he liked what he saw here.
“ I walked away from some great offers and chose St. Louis because I believe the trajectory of progress here is greater than anywhere else I’ve seen,” he said. “ The sense of momentum from the outside looking in is palpable.”
That doesn’t mean he’s blind to the challenges ahead. He knows that areas of downtown need work, and the blocks around the Convention Center are a particular concern.
“That weighs pretty heavily on me, and that was big in my consideration of whether or not I wanted to come here to lead Explore St. Louis,” he acknowledged. “And I think the last thing we need is leaders who are going to bury their heads in the sand.” While he believes overall downtown gets a worse rap than it deserves, he describes the neighborhood as “ pockets of excellence surrounded by mounds of mediocrity.” He’ll be working on those mounds, and says Explore St. Louis will need to take the lead on “curating” the experience around the convention center, not just within it.
“It’s really not complicated,” he said. “It’s taking this from a perspective of curating an experience and welcoming people, just like you would do if you were bringing them to your home for an event or a party or a dinner. And then at the same time, we have to be really good about marketing downtown in an era where it’s not all we want it to be, but it’s a work in progress.”
And for all of downtown’s needs, Dean noted that St. Louis is already winning by one metric of great interest to younger tourists. Our walkable neighborhoods, he said, aren’t just a strength for people who live here. They’re also increasingly something people seek out when they travel. Part of the work he did in Puerto Rico was helping introduce tourists to its artists and artisans, pitching the island not just as a beachy paradise but a place with a complicated history and a thriving cultural scene—bringing visitors outside the traditional tourism hubs into places where people live.
“They got to see the art being created and talk to the artists,” he said. “There’s a real desire to connect with the people who really define the community.” That led to major results for Puerto Rico, he says, which went from being “the least productive tourism destination in the Caribbean,” in his words, to the fastest growing in the U.S. and second fastest growing in the world.
“Translate that to St. Louis,” he said. “You’ve got an amazing legacy of people who have created history here that, in many cases, is not well known. Yet we can tell their story. Whether it’s from music, arts, entertainment, sports, innovation and business, there are travelers who will travel for that.
“And let’s not overlook the obvious,” he added. “People will travel across the ocean to see Van Gogh paintings. We have half a dozen right here in our community. So for me, it’s about finding those underrecognized, underappreciated stories and people, and accentuating the brand of St. Louis through them.”
A native of a small town in east central Illinois (he described it as “Nowheresville,” surrounded by cornfields on all sides), Dean noted that St. Louis had near-mythical status for him as a young boy. He came here for his first vacation, and remembers visiting the Gateway Arch, the Old Spaghetti Factory, and Busch Stadium.
“For me, St. Louis was a place of magic and potential,” he said. “And it also planted in me as a young child the power of travel, because travel opened my eyes and opened my mind to the world. So to come here more than four decades later and now have the privilege of promoting St. Louis to the world is really a full circle moment for me.”
Hear more from Dean on The 314 Podcast.
