DESTINATION BROOKLYN: Black Brooklyn Culture Tours Launches to Combat Recession and the Economic Meltdown for Small Black Businesses in Brooklyn

DESTINATION BROOKLYN: Black Brooklyn Culture Tours is an initiative to bring more visitors into these neighborhoods (once a month), give more exposure to these business and selective avenues where there are a cluster of black businesses as well as a larger marketing model for business collaboration in Brooklyn . The tour will cost about $40 and introduce visitors to Brooklyn fashion icons like Moshood, and Brenda Brunson-Bey of Tribal Truth Collection, cultural institutions like MoCADA and galleries like Motique Gallery; restaurants like Cheryl's Global Soul (a chef on the Food Network); and Brooklyn shopping staples like Pieces, Calabar Imports and Harriet's Alter Ego and new stores like Stellas and Awedacity.

(PRWEB) October 19, 2008 -- On Saturday, December 20, from 10am - 6pm, a simple old-fashion cultural tour bus tour will navigate Brooklyn's five neighborhoods and seven avenues in an effort to combat recession and the economic meltdown for black businesses.

DESTINATION BROOKLYN: Black Brooklyn Culture Tours is the brainchild of Brooklyn-based businesses Calabar Imports and Sole Sublime Spa who joined forces to collaborate to promote Brooklyn as a place to eat, live, work, and shop with a focus on five neighborhoods and Black (African American, African, and Caribbean) businesses, sites and cultural institutions in Bedford Stuyvesant; Fort Greene; Clinton Hills; Prospect Heights; Flatbush; and Crown Heights. Atim Annette Oton of Calabar Imports and Loren M. Davis-Baxter of Sole Sublime Spa decided in September to take a more proactive and hands-on approach in increasing their customer reach for their businesses, their community/neighborhood businesses and black businesses as the economic meltdown takes hold in Brooklyn.

Their strategy is simple: black small businesses like shops and cultural institutions need more traffic (visitors) and marketing the tour to potential audience of 500,000. Loren M. Davis-Baxter, who recently opened her spa comments, "this tour is a vital part in my business plan to the growth of my business, and it will introduce more people to the businesses, neighborhoods and the diversity of Black Brooklyn." The tour is being marketed to Brooklyn, New York City and New Jersey residents as well as travel and tour operators across the US. "For me, the tours are a small step to initiating change and will access new audiences and increase business and outreach for some black small businesses," remarks Atim Annette Oton.

"In May 2007, I wrote an article about shopping in four of these neighborhoods with the idea to inform others about black shops in Brooklyn and to construct a tour and a year later, one-third (1/3) of the black businesses I listed are no longer in business," according to Oton. She continued, "Among black businesses, we understand the challenges of staying in business and with the economy teething negatively, there will be higher numbers of our businesses closing as consumers tighten their belts and landlords look to maintain their costs by increasing rents and passing on other costs to their tenants."

DESTINATION BROOKLYN: Black Brooklyn Culture Tours is an initiative to bring more visitors into these neighborhoods (once a month), give more exposure to these business and selective avenues where there are a cluster of black businesses as well as a larger marketing model for business collaboration in Brooklyn. The tour will cost about $40 and introduce visitors to Brooklyn fashion icons like Moshood, and Brenda Brunson-Bey of Tribal Truth Collection, cultural institutions like MoCADA and galleries like Motique Gallery; restaurants like Cheryl's Global Soul (a chef on the Food Network); and Brooklyn shopping staples like Pieces, Calabar Imports and Harriet's Alter Ego and new stores like Stellas and Awedacity.

Website:

http://www.calabar-imports.com/blackbrooklyntours.html

About Calabar Imports

Calabar Imports is a specialty store for African, Asian and South American home furnishings, jewelry, fashion, aromatheraphy, and gifts. The store is 4 years old and owned by Atim Annette Oton and Heloise Annette Oton. Website: www.calabar-imports.com

About Sole Sublime Spa

Sole Sublime Spa is the new kid on the block is nestled in the heart of east Flatbush on Church Avenue. Owned by Loren M. Davis-Baxter, the spa offer massages, facials and body treatments in a soothing environment and is a sensual pampering experience with a bed and breakfast flavor.

Some Key facts:

Blacks own less than 7% of the Main Street businesses and less than 1% of the commercial real estate in predominantly Black neighborhoods. The average Black business has gross revenue of $70,000 compared with $1.3 million for the average Asian business, $126,000 for the average Latino business, and $10 million for the average business in New York State. Source: The Economic State of Black New York , 2008.

###