"I'm here to tell you that many of those who travel and tour are not going to be those from California, Oregon and Washington," Huntsman said. "They are going to be from Korea, Japan, China and Singapore, where disposable incomes are on the rise. . . . So we either capture this new generation of those who will travel or tour, or we cede that business to our neighbors, in which case they win it and they have more revenue to build better schools."

On the education front, Huntsman said he would build on former Gov. Olene Walker's reading initiatives and focus on language studies.

"We have four schools in our state today that teach Chinese," Huntsman said. "Why is it that we are teaching German and French in a world where our kids are going to need to know Chinese and Arabic? We're preparing our kids from a linguistics standpoint for the Cold War. We're beyond the Cold War. I think we need to recognize that in some of our schools."

In addition, the governor said a state energy policy is needed, and he suggested a "cooling-off" period of one to two years for executive branch employees after leaving office before entering the field of lobbying.

---

E-mail: danderton@desnews.com