Our Voice: Washington state needs new tourism office

We had hoped that, finally, this session the Legislature would re-establish a statewide marketing program.

Unfortunately, funding for a state tourism office reportedly was not included in the Senate budget.

This is a disappointing blow.

For months, support for Senate Bill 5251 and its companion, House Bill 1123, looked promising. The legislation was carefully crafted and had bi-partisan support.

Its intent was to create a Washington Tourism Marketing Authority, which would be made up of legislators and those in the tourism industry.

To fund it, $5 million would be deposited in its account every biennium by diverting 0.1 percent of retail taxes from lodging, rental cars and restaurants.

Private sector matches also would support the program. Ultimately, up to $15 million per biennium could be spent on tourism statewide without new taxes.

We thought it was a great plan, and would help us better compete with our neighboring states for valuable tourism money.

As it happens, Washington ranks last in the country for tourism spending after lawmakers shut down the state marketing program in 2011 — and there has been lost opportunities for revenue ever since.

The House releases its budget next week, so the new tourism plan could still survive.

In addition, officials with Visit Tri-Cities are encouraging people to contact state legislators and push to get this important program off the ground.

Locally, we know how crucial it is to have tourism boosters of our own.

In its recently released 2016 annual report, Visit Tri-Cities compiled a list of some impressive numbers.

For instance, visitors to our region last year spent $432.9 million, which generated $47.2 million in local and state tax receipts.

Of that, $16.5 million was kept in the Tri-City area. In addition, the tourism industry supported 5,900 jobs in Benton and Franklin counties last year.

We think these statistics are significant, and show how important visitors are to our community.

Overall, the report said that tourism growth in the Tri-Cities remained steady throughout 2016. However, a caution light has been lit from the hotel industry.

Even though last year more people than ever booked hotel rooms in the Tri-Cities, the demand, unfortunately, did not keep pace with new hotel construction.

Visit Tri-Cities counted almost 700,000 room nights for 2016 among the hotels it tracks. That’s 21,460 more nights than the year before — which is great news.

The trouble is, we have seen a surge in hotel construction during the past two years, and that has resulted in fierce competition and a reduction in fair market share.

By the end of last year, there were 3,989 rooms competing for customers, 19 percent more than in 2014.

And two more hotels are scheduled to open later this year.

Our own tourism office is a force, driven by dedicated people who do their best to boost the community. They attract sporting events and conventions to the region, manage the Visit Tri-Cities website, advertise and market the community.

And the funding for Visit Tri-Cities come from public and private streams, which is similar to what is proposed for the state tourism office.

We know our local tourism champions will do their best to help our struggling hotel market. It would be great, however, if they could get a little help from a statewide program — just like every other community tourism office in the country.

Lawmakers need to approve tourism funding, and they need to do it this session.

This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 4:31 AM with the headline "Our Voice: Washington state needs new tourism office."