Official Plugs Tourism Spending U.S. Must Match Canada’s Boost In Tour Promotion Budget

Sun., May 7, 1995

Associated Press

Canada’s bid for a bigger share of the world travel and tourism market should be a wake-up call for the United States, the nation’s top travel and tourism official said.

Visiting Post Falls on Friday for the Governor’s Conference on Recreation and Tourism, Greg Farmer said the annual U.S. budget for travel and tourism promotion is $16.3 million.

“That’s just not adequate to get the job done,” said Farmer, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s undersecretary for travel and tourism.

He said Canada announced three months ago that it will boost funding for tourism promotion from $13 million in 1995 to $100 million next year.

“That’s great competition and that’s going to have a real negative impact if we don’t respond accordingly,” Farmer said, “particularly our border states.”

He said more emphasis on the national tourism market is necessary as many parts of the country shift from resource-based to service-based economies.

“This region is probably the best illustration of that transition from the resource-based economies, timber and mining particularly. Not that they’re ever going to go away, but their impact on the North Idaho economy is diminished somewhat,” he said.

The United States now ranks 31st in the world in travel and tourism promotion spending, sandwiched between Cyprus at 30th and Tunisia at 32nd. With next year’s anticipated spending, Canada likely will enter the top 10, Farmer said. Spain currently leads the world at $139 million per year.

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