One of the travel industry's never-ending tasks is reminding successive generations of politicians that investments in tourism and travel promotion can produce big dividends in economic development, tax revenue and jobs.
Like any task, this one would be drudgery without the proper tools, but the U.S. Travel Association has taken care of that. Now residing in the "Toolkit" section of the U.S. Travel website is a report called "The Power of Travel Promotion," an updated version of a 2011 report designed to help travel advocates "Defend your budget."
The report notes that travel-related taxes generated $58.4 billion for state and local governments in 2012, "enough to pay the wages of every firefighter and police officer in the country," while creating jobs at a faster rate than the rest of the economy.
The stats go on and on, and they seem convincing. But what tells the tale in this report are the case studies of what happens to destinations when they invest and promote, and what happens when they don't.
Two years ago, Florida Gov. Rick Scott vetoed a bill to help develop a world-class rowing venue at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, on the grounds that it wasn't an appropriate expenditure of tax dollars.
But he later reversed himself, and the rowing center last week was vying to host the 2017 World Rowing Championships, a single event that could pump $13 million in direct visitor spending into the local economy, according to the U.S. Travel report.
In 2011, Washington state shut down its tourism office, setting off an unhappy chain of events. Arrivals and visitor spending started lagging nearby states, particularly as Montana increased its tourism promotion budget. Partly as a result, traveler spending in competing Montana grew 70% faster than in Washington state during 2011, according to U.S. Travel.
As we report in the news pages today, efforts by the industry to fill the gap with private initiatives have managed to keep the website going and the state's visitors guide in circulation, but not much else.
The stories go on and on. In the oft-cited case of the Finger Lakes Wine Country Tourism Marketing Association in upstate New York, the first year of media and advertising spending a decade ago generated $21 in incremental visitor spending for every $1 invested. And it gets better. By 2010 it was up to $44 to $1.
That's leverage.