Pin the town red

City campaign encourages residents to rediscover Boston's tourist draws

Donald Watson relaxed on a bench on Boston Common yesterday but would soon be on his feet again, conducting another tour on the Freedom Trail.

Lately, the Charlestown resident said, he has not been the only local on his tours.

"I see them more and more," he said.

He'll see more local residents become tourists if a new city campaign proves successful. Not far from where Watson reclined, Mayor Thomas M. Menino yesterday announced a new tourism push that urges Boston-area residents to rediscover the city.

The city is stationing 12-foot-tall red beacons shaped like pins at 10 Boston landmarks, including the New England Aquarium, Franklin Park Zoo, and Boston Children's Museum, as part of the campaign called "Visit the Pin." Seven of the 10 pins are permanent, while the other three will be moved around the city. The city is also launching print, broadcast, and transit ads plugging the initiative, and has printed a summer guidebook.

"With the economy being so tough, we're trying to promote what we have in Boston," Menino said in an interview after his announcement in front of the Frog Pond. Menino hosted the official opening of the pond yesterday. "We have it all."

One of the giant pins sits outside Boston Common's visitor information center, where Watson launched his 12:30 p.m. tour.

In his flock of about two dozen were Southbridge residents Misa Guzman and her husband, Juan. Juan Guzman's brother was visiting from Puerto Rico.

Misa Guzman said she would take the mayor's advice and return later to see other attractions.

"There's just not enough time to explore everything," she said.

Sandy Tague, who lives near Portsmouth, N.H., was taking the guided tour, too. "It's an easy day trip for us," she said.

Persuading residents to rediscover the city seemed like a good idea, she said.

"I grew up in New York City, and I didn't do any of that stuff," she said. "You tend to forget it's there when you live in it."

One of the first stops on the tour was Granary Burying Ground, where Jennifer Kiprit, a graduate student at Brandeis University who has lived in Somerville for the past year, was showing a friend from Chicago the city.

"This city is just very rich in history and culture," she said. "I think people should take advantage of what's in their own backyard."

That was exactly what Peggy and Thomas Bannon of Framingham were doing. They sat on a bench, watching people outside Faneuil Hall Marketplace.

"We come in town and just go wherever," Peggy Bannon said. "We never know where we're going to end up."

Sarah Kristi, 20, of Winthrop has been working at a trolley tour booth at the marketplace for the past four summers.

The mayor's new campaign seems nice, she said, and it might even get some people to walk the Freedom Trail. "I don't think we're ever going to see Bostonians on the trolley," however, she said.

Farther down the trail, across the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, and inside Mother Anna's Restaurant in the North End, owner Alan Caparella chatted with a few customers seated at his bar.

"I think it's a great idea," he said of the local-tourism push. "No one does it. I've lived in this city for my whole life and I've never done it."

Caparella said he has noticed more locals visiting the North End rather than making long trips because of high gas prices. Menino's campaign has a chance, he said. "It's easy to get around. There's always something going on."

As Caparella finished his sentence, it began to rain outside, driving passersby under awnings. "The weather," he added, "could be a little better."