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Colorado, Vietnam...and Illinois The 24 February 2004 edition of the Zeitgeist e-Zine As we look across the North American tourism-scape, it looks as only a handful of States and Provinces have figured out the connection between investment in tourism promotion and increased tax revenues. By my count…4. Leading the pack, as noted in last spring’s issue of the Zeitgeist newsletter, was Colorado. And, it shouldn’t be surprising. If there is a state that should finally get it, it would be the Centennial State. After all, this was a State that eliminated its Tourism Department in 1993. By the time they realized their mistake and reversed themselves in 1999, the state had forfeited almost $650 million in visitor generated tax revenue. Last year, facing a billion dollar budget shortfall, the Governor authorized an additional $10 million to tourism promotion. They “get it” in Colorado. They also get it in Vietnam. My jaw hit the keyboard when I read that the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has proposed that the Government inject an extra $10 billion dong into the national action plan for tourism promotion, half of it slated for ads on CNN! Now, before you get too apoplectic about such a sum, we should reassure you that the dong and the dollar are miles apart in comparative value. In U.S. dollars, we’re talking about an increase of $670,000. But, for a country with a GDP of $35 billion US (as compared to $11 trillion in the U.S.), this is still pretty big stuff. So what do the governments of Colorado and Vietnam have in common? They get this ROI thing… Speaking of whether government “gets it”…we also note a sobering turn of events in Illinois. Enviously referred to as the “land of milk and funding,” Illinois once boasted a State Tourism budget of $65 million. They "got it," as Dick Cheney once infamously quipped, "big time." Last week though, freshman Governor Rod Blagojevich released his proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year in which he has slashed the Tourism budget to $25.6 million. While that is still bigger than the budgets with which most States compete, the most painful cut comes to the innovative $14 million grant program that funds 39 Illinois CVBs with between $50,000 to $3 million per Bureau each year. It’s been sliced in half, facing many Bureaus with the prospect of having to cut staff and programming. Best quote so far in the war of words that has erupted comes from Sue Vos, Chair of the Illinois Council of CVBs and the CEO of the Aurora CTC: “That sound you hear? It’s Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri and Michigan saying ‘thank you.’” Colorado too, I’m sure. Bill
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