Making Arizona Tourism Work Again
The Situation
Arizona as a destination has always had a recognizable and respected tourism brand. But now, because Jan Brewer has declared war on tourism, the industry is bleeding jobs and revenue. Instead of being seen as warm and welcoming – a place people want to visit and businesses want to relocate to – Arizona has been repositioned as a place that is cold, closed and dangerous.
The Arizona brand has been high-jacked. A healthy tourism industry is critical for our state’s recovery. Every month that we lose market share compounds our losses. Studies prove that for every 0.1 point loss in market share, for example, Arizona will lose an estimated 13,000 jobs, $780.0 million in statewide funding and $60 million in tax collections.
As Governor, I will lead the fight to restore the identity of Arizona as a warm and welcoming destination so tourism can once again become a key sector in Arizona’s economy.
Tourism by the Numbers
The importance of this industry to our State cannot be overstated. Here are some facts all Arizonans should know.
- In 2008, tourism contributed approximately $1.4 billion to State and local revenues. What makes this number even more impressive is that tourism does not require incentives from government to operate.
- Travel and tourism is the only industry that is present and contributing revenue in every county in Arizona.
- In 2009, the travel industry accounted for 157,200 direct travel-related jobs with earnings of $4.7 billion. Secondary impacts were 135,000 jobs with earnings of $4.9 billion.
- According to conservative estimates, every $1 spent on tourism advertising returns $7.00 to the state in taxes.
- About three-fourths of all travel spending occurs in Pima and Maricopa counties. But in relation to the size of the regional economies with Arizona, travel is actually more important in the non-metropolitan areas of the state. In non-metro regions, including many Native American communities, tourism is the most important – and sometimes only -- revenue generator.
Support for State Parks
Jan Brewer looked at the tourism industry, which is already under siege by the Great Recession, and responded by trying to kill it with false and hysterical statements about our border. Her message was clear: Arizona is a dangerous and scary place. Don’t come here. She amplified that message by closing many state parks, putting others on a reduced and confusing visitor schedule and closing Arizona’s rest areas. As of this writing, she is looking now to sell our parks and rest stops to private bidders. This misguided approach throws the future of our state parks and rest areas into doubt, decimates our important natural and cultural assets. It tells rural Arizona (where the majority of state parks are located) that their regions are not important and even dispensable.
As Governor, I am committed to protecting Arizona’s state parks as the extraordinary resource they provide to both residents and visitors.
I believe public open space is critical to the well-being of Arizonans and to our future quality of life. In addition, keeping our state parks open is good business. Parks contribute to the tourism experience. Arizona State Parks attract 2.3 million visitors each year and produce $266 million of direct and indirect economic impact plus $22.7 million in state and local taxes. Parks are an integral part of the tourism experience and make a huge contribution to this economic sector. Our cultural resource parks honor our Arizona heritage and provide dynamic attractions in rural areas. They are our birthright and our legacy to our children.
Supporting the Convention & Leisure Traveler
Tourism has two different faces: the convention/meeting traveler and the leisure visitor. While conventions and meetings are the big ticket tourism “item,” they require larger facilities found largely in bigger cities. This means that urban areas not only feel the direct gain of economic impact with meetings and conventions, they also feel the losses. Recently, more than 40 meetings booked for Arizona cancelled because of SB 1070, adding to the economic woes of our major metro areas. We have no way of calculating the rolling, longer-term loss since meetings book five to ten years ahead of time.
In today’s global climate, cities and their convention bureaus are fighting for a share of an ever-shrinking market. Even without political mayhem, business travel is dramatically reduced or becomes almost non-existent during economic recessions while competition grows more intense. Destinations respond by competing with their attractions and airfares, but also with state-of-the-art convention facilities and meeting amenities. Arizona has long assumed that our most unique attribute, our warm climate, will win the day. In fact, that’s not true. In this competitive environment, our warm weather puts us in competition with every warm weather destination in the U.S. and, sometimes, even the world.
As Governor I will make my office available to the industry to explore how the State can assist in promoting Arizona as a premiere destination for conventions and meetings. AOT will work closely with the CVBs to create effective programming, messaging and materials that leverage talents and revenues to make Arizona once again a desirable meeting destination. This effort will reach out to both international and domestic markets. Together we will build a strong and effective partnership that will empower tourism to work for Arizona.
Like the meetings market, leisure travel has been impacted by unemployment, mortgage woes and disappearing retirement savings. From 2008 to 2009, the Arizona Office of Tourism reported a 10.2 percent decline in travel spending. Travel-generated employment decreased by 5.7 percent. Total state and local tax receipts generated by travel spending declined by 8.1 percent, and visitation in Arizona decreased by 7.5 percent. U.S. travel, by comparison, dropped 5.8 percent during this period. (For more details see Arizona Travel Impacts 1998-2009 July 2010, published by the Arizona Office of Tourism).
By restoring funding to the Arizona Office of Tourism, we will work together creatively to reverse this trend. The state, working with local chambers of commerce and convention and visitors bureaus, the State will promote the many attractions and experiences available within Arizona. Because leisure travelers increasingly use the internet and social media to get their travel information, I will convene a task force of key Arizona technology experts and representatives of the tourism industry to explore how we may use 21st century technology more creatively and cost effectively to attract more leisure visitors and enhance their visitor experience.
Creating Tomorrow’s Tourism Jobs
Arizona’s universities have good educational programs in place that support the tourism, recreation and hospitality industries. These programs can be vital to build tomorrow’s job force. We know that the scalability of tourism offers a unique array of opportunities for employment, from management on a global scale to entrepreneurial sales and service and we can leverage these opportunities through educational programs.
As Governor, I will fight to protect education and will work with our universities, community colleges and industry partners to strengthen recreation, hospitality and tourism programs so that our state can establish itself as a center for training tomorrow’s industry leaders.
Bringing back pride in Arizona
Tourism helps us preserve our history and our culture. When we show our state to visitors, we show the best of ourselves – our Native American culture, grand canyons, mountain parks, art galleries and museums, golf courses, spas, resorts, attractions and shopping. In doing so, we feel proud to be Arizonans.
As Governor, I will oversee the launch of an inclusive, statewide campaign that reaches out to all Arizonans to rebuild pride in our state.
- During the transition, I will convene a Tourism Cabinet that includes key political, business, tourism, sports, Native American, State park director and education leadership. The cabinet will be asked to provide leadership and commitment to rebrand Arizona as open minded and open hearted, open to visitors and open for business.
- To emphasize the shift from “closed” to visitors to “open” for business, I will announce that we are restoring funding to Arizona’s state parks.
- Concurrently, working with the CVBs, AOT and other key groups, I will begin a media and a social media campaign that declares that Arizona is open to visitors and open for business. Social media will be a particularly important part of this project to reach targeted audiences.
- I will hold quarterly meetings with the Tourism Cabinet to continue to identify success stories and recommend further action.
I will introduce and implement this campaign within the first three months of becoming Governor. Arizona will once again be known as being Open Minded & Open Hearted; Open to Visitors & Open for Business.
