Armand Jackson
TIME Magazine every year creates a list of “The World’s Greatest Places,” and this year’s 50 destinations includes Detroit as the “Newfound glory.” The largest city in Michigan is one of only five U.S. cities to make this list alongside Portland, San Francisco, Miami, and Park City. It also shares this list with international places like Seoul, the capital of South Korea, Thessaloniki, Greece, the country of Jamaica, the International Space Station, the Great Barrier Reef, the Philippines’ Boracay Island, and the city of Doha, Qatar. All these locations were included with the perspective of offering new and exciting experiences.
For these annual lists, TIME solicits nominations of places from their international network of correspondents and contributors. They developed the list this year with the theme of economic recovery and highlighting locations that are “thriving, growing, and changing.” Especially in the travel and hospitality industries given the impact of the ongoing pandemic throughout the past few years. Their hope for this list is that understanding and human connection can be reestablished and found through travel.
For Detroit, TIME Magazine highlights how much it has recovered and become a revitalized city with great opportunities nearly a decade after it filed for bankruptcy. Travelers just driving through the city play a role in its economic recovery since it was selected as home of the United States’s first electric-vehicle charging road, making it once again the Motor City for the modern age. The magazine also showcases the city’s new offerings of hospitality for food and drinks. These establishments include Midnight Temple, an Indian gastropub near Eastern Market; Rosemary, chef Maxcel Hardy’s rosemary-filled café; What’s Crackin’, a seafood-boil restaurant serving up fish caught from the Great Lakes; and Basan, a Japanese robata restaurant.
There are also over 500 new hotel rooms currently in development for lodging. Cambria Hotel, a 158-room downtown hotel featuring bluetooth mirrors, golf simulators, and the Detroit Taco Company Bodega, will open in late 2022. ROOST Apartment Hotel is preparing to open early next year in Book Tower, one of Detroit’s iconic buildings that is currently being restored. Then there is the summer opening of Phase 2 of the historic $55 million Motown Museum expansion, featuring an outdoor plaza and performance space.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer celebrated the selection of Detroit in a press release with the statement: “Already recognized as the number one emerging ecosystem for startups and selected as the home of the 2024 NFL Draft, Detroit continues to grow, attracting talent, events, and investments from across the country and around the world.”
