Online platform aims to bring tourists to neighborhoods — and help businesses in them

Small businesses in South Florida’s minority neighborhoods often lack resources to market their services to tourists. Stephanie M. Jones plans to change that with a website and mobile application.

Jones created the online platform Culture onShore to connect visitors with local businesses and cultural institutions in neighborhoods like Overtown, Little Haiti, and Liberty City. Her idea won second place in the FIU Track of the 2020 Miami Herald Startup Pitch Competition.

“Most of the small businesses — whether it’s tour guides, restaurants or local artists — don’t have large, or any, budget to market to domestic and international tourists,” Jones said.

Visitors are often unaware of the cultural heritage experiences they can find in minority neighborhoods, she said. Through Culture onShore, they will be able to book historical and cultural tours or find local restaurants, hotels and artists.

Jones has been a marketer for 20 years, focusing on cultural heritage tourism and business development. From 2013 to 2016, she had her own marketing company, Milestones Marketing, which the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau hired in 2014 to help small businesses attract tourists.

She worked with the bureau until the end of 2015, and in 2016 she founded the Cultural Heritage Alliance for Tourism, Inc., (CHAT). The company works with small tour operators in minority neighborhoods in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Delray Beach and West Palm Beach. She created Culture onShore as the online component of CHAT.

Competition Judge Karlene Cousins, who is a professor and chair of FIU’s department of information systems and business analytics, praised the platform.

“Oftentimes, when you travel, the experience is fabricated, it doesn’t feel authentic,” she said. “To me, this was an effort to change that.”

As a traveler herself, Cousins liked the idea of visiting places where locals hang out or eat. She was also excited to help small businesses in heritage communities.

Jones plans to have the platform up and running by the end of July, even if the tourism industry is not fully recovered from the pandemic by that time.

“We do know that people will start traveling again, so they will be able to plan their trips and they will know what cultural heritage experiences are available,” she said.

Launching the site has cost more than $15,000. Jones has raised some money from personal investments, family and friends, but has also applied for grants to build the platform and market it.

She has consulted a digital developer, a marketing expert and an advisory board to start. She also has more than a dozen tour operators and cultural organizations—like Libreri Mapou in Little Haiti and Lil Greenhouse Grill in Overtown — on board. Revenues are generated through sales commission on tours and activities booked via the platform.

Jones also hopes to expand the concept beyond South Florida. She wants to help other minority communities across Florida, the country and the Caribbean pick up foot traffic and revenue from tourism.

“We know that there are other small tour operators and small businesses that are not actively participating and making money in the tourism industry,” she said. “So what we are working to do is level the playing field for [them] and local residents in underserved communities.”

This story was originally published May 18, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Online platform aims to bring tourists to neighborhoods — and help businesses in them."