Editorial: With state’s tourism cut, hard work gets harder

The state of Washington has adopted a unique approach to travel promotion. It does none.

The state also no longer encourages film and video production.

The failure to renew tax credits for media companies is a relatively small oversight, although potentially very detrimental to Spokane-based North by Northwest Productions, and the many crew members who depend on the company for paychecks.

But tourism is Washington’s fourth-largest industry, one that employs more than 140,000 and generates $15 billion in spending and nearly $1 billion in tax revenues. In Spokane, the leisure and hospitality sector alone employs almost 20,000.

Yet state funding to support tourism promotion disappeared as of June 30. Support last year was $1.8 million, down from as much as $7 million in the past. Convention bureaus, hotel association members and other industry members have always carried more of the costs.

Now, they will have to pay all the bills. They are stepping up.

The Washington Tourism Alliance has assumed control of “Experience Washington,” which was once state-managed. About $300,000 has been raised from local convention bureaus, industry associations and individual companies. The Spokane Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau and Red Lion Hotels Corp. are among the founding partners. The Washington Indian Gaming Association has also anted up.

Backers hope to replicate the success of California, where the state kicks almost nothing into a mostly industry-funded $50 million kitty. But they are also mindful of the experience of Colorado, which pulled the plug on its state-supported tourism programs in 1993, restored some funding in 2000, but has not yet reclaimed lost market share.

No product, no matter how good, sells itself. Imagine Boeing Co., for example, forgoing marketing efforts not for a year, but for even a week. The United States finally awakened to the damage done to international visitations after the 9/11 terrorism attacks by last year passing the Tourism Promotion Act, which created a public-private Corporation for Tourism Promotion to sell travel to America.

What a concept.

The Western Governors Association, led this year by Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, just launched “Get Out West” to promote outdoor travel and recreation in the 19 member states. Washington will be challenged to get its share of those visitors when surrounding states and provinces are spending generously – Oregon, $10 million; Idaho, $7 million; British Columbia, $50 million – while the private sector rallies to pick up where Olympia has chosen to let off.

Colorado’s setbacks suggest that when it comes to travel promotion, states cannot take a vacation.