West
Washington State Closes Tourism Office, Seattle Proposes Hotel Tax
By Matt Alderton
July 19, 2011
Although the Space Needle, Mount Rainier and Puget Sound are world-renowned tourist attractions, they may soon fall prey to an "out of sight, out of mind" mentality among travelers, many of which could pass over the Pacific Northwest as a travel destination due to a new dearth of tourism marketing from that part of the country.
The cause of that dearth: Citing the need to close a $5.2 billion budget gap, lawmakers in Washington State voted in May to cut all tourism funding from the state's ledger. Gov. Christine Gregoire agreed and signed the cuts into law on June 15 as part of her budget for the new fiscal year. As a result, the Washington State Tourism Office officially closed its doors on June 30, making the "Evergreen State" the only U.S. state without a state-funded tourism office.
"It would be incredibly difficult to use taxpayer dollars to support our tourism office, while at the same time make significant cuts to education and health care," Karina Shagren, a spokesperson for Gov. Gregoire, told Reuters this month. "[The governor] is working closely with the private sector to ensure potential visitors continue to know about the attractions and the beautiful natural wonders found in Washington state."
Private-sector marketing efforts are underway by the nonprofit Washington Tourism Alliance, which inherited many of the state's tourism collateral — for example, its trade show booths, brochures and digital photo archives — and so far has raised about $300,000 of a targeted $15 million toward promoting the state.
Still, the lack of state funds could prove fatal to Washington's tourism industry, which is the state's fourth largest industry, having generated $15.2 billion in direct visitor spending in 2010. "Our lesson to Washington is that it's been 18 years since we went dark in 1993, and we still haven't gotten back to the national market share we had," Al White, head of the Colorado Tourism Office, told The New York Times last week, citing his state's decision to close its tourism office 18 years ago. "It's really difficult to affect market share positively, but it's really easy to affect it negatively if you're not out there."
Added Cathy Keefe, a spokesperson for the U.S. Travel Association, "It's a shortsighted way of thinking. You have to be constantly reinforcing the message. If you don't, people will forget about you. There's always going to be someone who's stepping in there to take over your market share."
Seattle Reacts
Even if they forget about its state, Seattle is determined to make sure travelers don't forget about its city, which is why hotel owners and city leaders last week announced an effort to pass a new hotel tax that would generate destination marketing revenue for the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Supported by the Seattle Hotel Association, the proposed tax would result in a $2-a-night hotel room fee in addition to the 15.6 percent tax hotel guests already pay, making Seattle's taxes and fees on hotel rooms among the highest on the West Coast. Charged at 53 hotels in downtown Seattle, as well as Belltown, South Lake Union, the Chinatown International District, Pioneer Square and part of Capitol Hill, the fee would raise between $5 million and $6 million in 2012 to fund tourism promotion.
Said CVB President and CEO Tom Norwalk, according to The Seattle Times, "I think traditional sources of funding tourism in many cities and many states is changing dramatically. We're really using something that's been adopted widely around the country."
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