Washington – The Only State Without a Tourism Office

It’s big enough news that other states are noticing – Washington State is now the only state in the nation without a tourism office.

Tourism is Washington’s fourth-largest industry. The Department of Commerce reports that tourists spent more than $15 billion in the state in 2010 (and in turn generated nearly $1 billion in tax revenues). Of course, people all over know about the Space Needle, or the Fremont Troll, or the fish throwers in Pike Place Market. One thing that can fly under the radar is how important tourism is to Washington’s rural counties. In six of the state’s counties more than 10% of jobs are travel related – all rural counties.  So sure, people elsewhere know many of the things Seattle has to offer, but do they know that they can pair their bustling urban visit with a relaxing trip to some wineries, maybe climb a mountain, or visit a rain forest?

Compared to other states, the budget for the Washington State Tourism Office was relatively small at $1.8 million in 2010. In 2011, Oregon is spending $10 million, Montana is spending $14 million, and California is spending $50 million. So, what effect will this have on the state’s tourism? A recent New York Times article highlights a similar situation that happened in Colorado. In 1993, the state’s tourism office closed up and didn’t reopen until 2000. Tourism in the state still hasn’t risen to the national share it had before the closure. Al White, the current head of Colorado’s tourism office states “It’s really difficult to affect market share positively, but it’s really easy to affect it negatively if you’re not out there.”

So, will Washington State not be “out there”, and begin to lose ground to neighboring states who are getting their messages out? In response to the loss of the tourism office, private businesses are trying to step in and fill the gap. The Washington Tourism Alliance (WTA), a nonprofit organization formed by a number of tourism related businesses, is looking to continue the work of the Washington State Tourism Office – which includes taking control of the Experience Washington website. The WTA is still working on a funding model for the organization, but it will likely come from membership fees and/or assessments. As reported in the Seattle Times, a push is happening in Seattle to charge a $2 per-night room tax in downtown hotels with more than 60 rooms – a move supported by hotel owners. Revenues from this tax would be used to fund advertising to promote travel to Seattle. These funding models are similar to what other areas do, including California and British Columbia.

Regardless of whether promotion is done directly by the state or through private partnerships within the state, it’s a good idea to keep Washington in the minds of those out of state tourists. And it’s important that they know which Washington. Not that one – Washington, the state.

Weekly B-MOW: Washington Tourism Alliance Summit

Yesterday, I went to the Washington Tourism Alliance Summit. Talk about trying to make lemons into lemonade. As I’ve mentioned before, many different parts of the state budget are being cut significantly, but here is an industry that is having all of its state support eliminated. Literally, there will be no more state tourism office. It’s the 2011 equivalent of “Ford to City: Drop Dead.”

And yet rather than feeling sorry for themselves, they’re picking up the pieces and making it happen on their own.

DIY Economic Development – The Tourism Industry Way

We live in an interesting time for the public sector. Local and state governments are struggling to allocate scarce tax dollars to a variety of important programs and needs, and often short term issues (public safety, social services) are winning out over long-term investments like higher education and economic development. Whether you think that’s the right way or the wrong way to approach it, that’s what’s happening, and so it’s interesting to see how economic development organizations are dealing with the new reality.

And one of the most interesting reactions that we’re seeing is “Fine, if you won’t help me, I’ll do it myself.” Like the tourism industry is proposing to do.

“Don’t Eat Your Seed Corn”

The weeklong Farnborough International Airshow—one of the world’s largest aviation/aerospace events and trade shows—wrapped up this weekend in England. In total, some $47 billion worth of deals were signed during the event.

As you may have heard, there were no Washington state or county officials on hand during the show. While in years past Washington has sent substantial delegations and facilitated meetings and events at the show, this year’s budget constraints kept our leaders and economic development organizations at home. (I should note that Washington did have a booth organized and staffed by Washington’s trade representative for Europe.)

If You Can’t Take Seattle to Space, Bring Space to Seattle

One of my earliest posts on the Prosperity Blog was about space…specifically, making our region the center for space tourism. I mean, hey, if people are going to pay huge sums of money to get a change to fly up into the atmosphere, it might as well be from here, right?

Alas, my dreams of people coming here to leave for space have not come true. But it’s still possible that people can come here to get a pretty good taste of what that would be like…

Let’s Talk Ag

When it comes to economic development, Prosperity Partnership has always recognized the importance of working not only regionally but also statewide.  That’s why we have WSU President Elson Floyd as one of our co-chairs, it’s why we run cross-state bus tours, and it’s why so many of the organizations we help launch – Aerospace Futures Alliance, Washington Clean Tech Alliance, etc. – are statewide. Of course, the most important reason is that we actually share a lot of industry clusters: clean tech, aerospace, IT, life sciences, trade, tourism and military all have big roles in both the central Puget Sound economy as well as the state’s. But there’s one thing we don’t mutually focus on: agriculture. Or do we?

Go Convention Yourself

As some of you may remember, a big action item from the Prosperity Partnership’s Tourism and Visitors Cluster Development Strategy was supporting the expansion of the Washington State Convention Center. Last year, that was a relatively controversial proposal, but this year – maybe because of all the attention in the Legislative session on revenue increases and budget cuts – it looks like it may happen…in an unexpected way.

Tourism Survey, Part 2

Back in August, we conducted a survey of over 300 international tourists, to find out how accommodating our region is to visitors from other countries. Part Two of that survey is taking place now, where we’re doing a similar survey of study abroad students in Washington state.

Big Events

When I moved here in 2001, it was after the Era of Big Events in Seattle seemed to have ended – no more Goodwill Games, no more NCAA Final Four at the Kingdome, the stymied Olympics bid…we had the MLB all-star game, and that was the last of it.  Maybe it was all the stadium building or the post-9/11 economic bust or the rise of the Lesser Seattle movement, but somehow those huge drivers of tourism and economic impact drifted away.  Until now…

Seattle = Detroit + Southern California

I have two friends getting married to each other next summer. One is from Michigan, the other from Southern California. And I suggested that they get married in the venue that is a combination of those two places: the Tesla Motors showroom in South Lake Union!

Does Scott Woodward Know About This?

So, I noticed the other day that the University of Washington is planning on going back to the legislature this session to get funding for the Husky Stadium renovations. Certainly an uphill battle in a time of huge deficits.

But then I saw a mention in my recent issue of ESPN The Magazine that there is another way to fund stadiums.

I’m Not Saying You Should Leave Our Region to See Great Art, But…

A lot of you have probably seen the news/buzz about the new Whatcom Museum at the Lightcatcher, a new $18.3 million museum of contemporary and abstract art in Bellingham. Maybe you’ve seen the (actually pretty compelling) late night television advertisements. I’d love to go. But what really catches my eye about the Lightcatcher is this phrase from the Seattle Times article:

But city leaders have high expectations that Lightcatcher, funded mostly through sales tax, will help draw more tourists from Vancouver, B.C., Seattle and around the region. [emphasis added]

You know me and my love of publicly funded cultural access, so I had to learn more.  Luckily, the good folks at the Western Washington University student newspaper had the answer:

Big Ideas of 2009

It’s getting to be that time of year when people start doing annual recaps; this year, folks get to have even more fun with decade recaps as well. My very favorite of these – the New York Times Magazines’ Year in Ideas issues – is going to come out soon, and I can hardly contain my glee. We here at the Prosperity Blog have also had a good year of ideas, generating all sorts of practical proposals for improving our region’s business climate and competitiveness. But, of course, we have also had lots of impractical, sky’s-the-limit ideas that we hope someone is going to take and run with and make all our dreams come true. So, for all you good-idea-awaiting folks out there, here’s a summary of some of our “Big Ideas of 2009″, presented in Top Ten format:

Isn’t This Why We Need the Cultural Access Fund?

Prosperity Partnership has been arguing that local jurisdictions need a new tool to help them increase access to arts and culture for all residents. Especially in tough economic times like these, it’s harder and harder to fun these activities out of general funds.  But the need for these funds is actually just as big: tourism, the economic impact of these institutions, and the whole “creative economy” thing.

So, on Monday, a bunch of folks protested Bainbridge Island City Hall because of big cuts to the public budget for culture. And there are so many great quotes in here that prove the above point.  I like two:

1) “The city funds are game-changing. It will cost jobs and household incomes.” The cuts will also reduce tourism and the city’s own revenues, she said.

2) Residents were not drawn to Bainbridge by “nice roads,” she said, but because of the “culture and creativity” they found. “(Bainbridge) is not just any other town,” she said. “But if we don’t put money into this, we redefine ourselves as just any other ordinary town.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Best.Theater.Scene Ever.

At least, according to the New York Times.