Boosterism

Boosterism is the act of promoting ("boosting") a town, city, or organization, with the goal of improving public perception of it.

Boosting can be as simple as talking up the entity at a party or as elaborate as establishing a visitors' bureau.

"[1] During the expansion of the American and Canadian West, boosterism became epidemic as the leaders and owners of small towns made extravagant predictions for their settlement, in the hope of attracting more residents and, not coincidentally, inflating the prices of local real estate.

During the nineteenth century, competition for economic success among newly founded cities led to overflow of booster literature that listed the visible signs of growth, cited statistics on population and trade and looked to local geography for town success reasons.

[2] The 1871 humorous speech The Untold Delights of Duluth, delivered by Democratic U.S. Representative J. Proctor Knott, lampooned boosterism.