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Missouri
Association
of Convention & Visitor Bureaus
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Members Only |
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Lt.
Governor Joe Maxwell's Speech Some
people think this legislative session is one to forget.
I believe it's one to remember.
Because during this long, bloody session, we learned a
lot about our government...our revenue streams...and
ourselves. If
we remember what led us to this past session, maybe we're not
as likely to be doomed to repeat it. It
wasn't all carnage...although it seemed that way. There were positive outcomes. It
was a year when we finally had solid bipartisan support for an
effort to fix our highways.
It was a year in which calmer heads prevailed, and we
passed a budget with 45 minutes to spare on the last day of
session...so we avoided a special session. And
it was a year when public debate singled out tourism as a
revenue producer. The
state's budget office was faced with a crisis.
They had to balance a 19 billion dollar budget.
And they could only get their hands on roughly 2
billion dollars to move around or eliminate. The
reasons for the budget crisis were several.
The Speaker of the House called it "The Perfect
Storm." There
were tax cuts in the 1990's...most notably on groceries.
And a combination of more Medicaid payments and more
prison beds ate up any cushion.
A recession was coming on.
And
this was all before September llth. It
was almost exactly one year ago, in a panic to find ways to
cut budgets, that the budget folks focused on tourism.
Maybe they noticed how Missouri's promotional budget
had grown since the inception of HB188.
Maybe they thought tourism was one of those programs
that nobody would miss. Against
my strong protests, they swept 1.4 million dollars out of
the Tourism Supplemental Revenue Fund.
I
told the budget folks - and their boss, the governor - that it
was the wrong thing to do.
In tough economic times, you don't cut your
advertising. If
anything, you advertise more.
They
nodded, and understood. But
the budget staff said they had to find money they could get
their hands on... So
as a tourism commissioner, I protested the first withholding
of 8 percent last summer.
Little did we know that things would get much worse. It
wasn't long until the events of September 11th
changed the world.
And the tourism industry nationwide...as well as just
about everything else...shut down.
We Americans found out about our resilience...and we
united against our terrorist foes.
But tourism took awhile to recover. You
all know that. The
Yankelovich Monitor reported that travel agencies lost a total
of $364 million in the first week following the terrorist
attacks. St.
Louis - surveyed 18 major hotels... reporting a third quarter
loss of 240 meetings, 28,760 meeting room nights and over $4.6
in total revenue. This
does not count the effect on local businesses such as
restaurants and retail stores. Kansas
City tourism generates $3.1B annually and was projected to
lose over 15% of revenue between September and May 1.
KCCVB laid off 8 people. Springfield
- lodging was down by 12%
(vast majority in the business and tour markets).
They expected Oct through Dec to be down around 10%;
attractions to be down between 5 and 10%; airport and highway
travel centers were down 38.5 and 29.8, respectively. Missouri's
response? On
October 29, we announced the new "Rediscover Your
Missouri" campaign.
It just makes sense to focus a little closer to home.
And it seems to be working.
April advertising inquiries are up 8.4% compared to
last year. Total
inquiries are up 34%, which includes internet orders.
In fact, internet requests are 19,886 this April
compared to 3,500 at the same time last year! You
know, places like right here in the Lake of the Ozarks were
hit doubly hard by the recession and 9-eleven.
That's because 11 percent of the lake's business is in
state department conventions and meetings.
That dropped from 11% to 4% right after September 11.
And state government's economic picture doesn't look
rosy yet... So
another part of the Rediscover Missouri campaign - one my
chief of staff John Robinson devised - was to use all 16 state
department information offices ...and every imaginable state
of Missouri information piece - from departmental newsletters
to drivers license notices, to encourage Missourians to
rediscover what's in their back yards.
Even
local governments have gotten in on the act...with mailing
stuffers and inserts urging employees and customers to
Rediscover Your Missouri. We
also devised a three point plan to restore tourism cuts: 1)
Contact the Governor and urge him to restore tourism dollars
(which I did on numerous occasions) 2)
Promote the fact that Missouri tourism is a revenue producer 3)
Urge the Missouri General Assembly to preserve tourism (which
also required educating legislators
on the importance of Tourism as a revenue producer) A
lot of people worked on this:
My staff, several legislators and lobbyists, and
Marjorie, who kept everybody in your organization
well-informed. It
was an ordeal. The
whole session was an ordeal.
And after the dust cleared, tourism...all things
considered...came out better than many people expected...with
the general assembly restoring much of the budget. Now
we must prepare for the future.
We must work to protect the Tourism Supplemental
Revenue Fund. We
must educate almost half a legislature of new faces.
And that's where you come in. Look
at this campaign as ongoing.
Never assume that new legislators understand the power
of tourism. Educate every candidate in your district before one of them
eventually ends up as your representative. And
maybe we can do less damage control, and promote more positive
progress in the next legislative session.
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This page last modified on 09/15/02 .
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