Conde Nast Traveler has ranked Mobile in a new list of “The Best Places to Go in North America & the Caribbean in 2024,” and the reason why illustrates one way the city’s claim to cultural significance has shifted in the past few years.

It’s an elite selection of 12 cities that’s part of a larger package of stories on the best places to go in the world in 2024. It includes major destinations such as Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Quebec. For each, there’s a focus: “In Detroit, for instance, the much-anticipated Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park project will be a game changer for the city’s western riverfront come summer 2024; a short drive away, the iconic Bonstelle Theater will get reimagined as an event and bar space, ready for any reason to celebrate. In Riviera Nayarit, along Mexico’s Central Pacific Coast, ritzy new hotels from the likes of Rosewood and St. Regis are adding a sheen of luxury to its laid-back surf beaches.”

The focus for the Mobile entry isn’t Mardi Gras, which is mentioned more or less as an afterthought. Other tourism mainstays, from the USS Alabama to Bellingrath Gardens to the nearby beaches, aren’t brought up. Instead, readers are advised to go to Mobile for “an all-year celebration of the city’s African American history.”

The entry proclaims that the pending restoration of Amtrak passenger service to Mobile “is particularly well-timed for the flurry of recently unveiled and soon-to-come cultural moments.”

Moments like the opening of “Clotilda: The Exhibition” at the new Africatown Heritage House. The creation of the planned Isom Clemon Civil Rights Park. The reopening of the segregation-era Davis Avenue Branch library as the Historic Avenue Cultural Center, and its inaugural exhibition “Remembering the Avenue.”

The article also mentions the revitalization of The Admiral Hotel, due for completion in early 2024, as a reason the year will be a good one to visit.

David Clark, president and CEO of Visit Mobile, described the city’s inclusion as a big win, saying the digital version of Conde Nast Traveler reaches 5.2 million readers. He noted that Mobile was not only one of 12 cities picked in North America and the Caribbean, it was one of only seven in the United States.

Clark said Mobile had been submitted for the honor by “a past media guest who visited Mobile,” and that the selection process involved “several rounds of vetting.”