A story by Maureen Dezell in today's Globe says that more Boston-area residents are making the Berkshires a summer cultural destination than in the past. Eastern Mass. residents always matched New Yorkers at Tanglewood, of course, but then the star attraction there is called the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Now officials with Route 7 corridor attractions like Jacob's Pillow, the Williamstown Theatre Festival and Mass. MOCA tell Dezell that more and more of their customers are driving west from the Hub. Several offer numbers showing a major increase since 1998 or '99.
Few have any good explanation. Welcoming venues and bucolic settings are not new. Mass. Tourism director Paul Sacco may be closer to the mark when he suggests a "critical mass" of attractions has been reached with MOCA and the revitalized Barrington Stage. But no one mentions a couple of other possible reasons that come to mind.
One, could this be an example of Americans vacationing closer to home since 9/11? That possible side effect of the terrorist attacks was much discussed, but aside from a large and apparently temporary drop in airline travel, evidence that we've lost interest in exotic destinations has been in short supply. Perhaps this is a piece. And two, Gas prices. This year in particular, but in previous years as well, some Bostonians weary of gouging at the pump may have decided to drive to the Berkshires instead of New York or Orlando or grandma's place in Wisconsin.
Or was it just that having a governor from North Adams, however briefly - Have you forgotten Jane Swift already? - finally made Bostonians aware that there is life west of Worcester?
