From Deseret News archives:
State's tourism ad budget may be cut
With the state facing a $1 billion shortfall, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is calling for a slash in spending on tourism marketing in the upcoming budget year by $4.7 million, a nearly 40 percent cut.
That could cost the state $15 for every dollar cut, according to Senate Majority Whip-elect Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, who pledged to fight to restore at least half the proposed cut.
"Tourism is at an all time high. We just had the best ski year ever," Jenkins said. "Right now is not the time to cut this. We're trying to keep our economy strong,"
Huntsman campaigned for his first term on the need to boost economic development, including tourism. Shortly after the governor took office in 2005, Jenkins helped him secure $10 million for tourism marketing, more than a tenfold increase.
Back then, Jenkins said, tourists were expected to bring in $8 for every $1 spent. But he said a study last summer found that the return on state money invested in tourism marketing was closer to 15:1.
"All you've got to do is think of it with a little bit of business sense," Jenkins said.
But the governor's spokeswoman, Lisa Roskelley, said it's not quite that simple.
"It's something that has to balance with the other needs of the state budget," she said, adding Utah was not alone in making such cuts. "Where other states are reducing this sort of expense severely, we have been able to maintain a significant investment that was nonexistent before Gov. Huntsman and Sen. Jenkins."
Roskelley said all the cuts proposed by the governor in his $10.6 billion budget released earlier this month were difficult. "The reality is our revenues are less than they have been," she said. "Obviously, economic development is critical...an important part of what we're doing, but certainly everything has to be balanced."
Utah Board of Tourism Chairman Kim McClelland said the cutbacks are a reasonable response, given the overall difficulty in the current economic climate.
"Our challenge will be to take the money that is allocated and spend it more effectively," McClelland said. "We can extend the return on investment and the value of those dollars."
Jason Perry, executive director of the Governor's Office of Economic Development, which oversees the Office of Tourism, said that the proposed reduction in ad funding would be significant, but the state would still be able to build its brand by "doing some very targeted advertising" with the funding that would be available.
"We'll just be very smart about how we market the state," he said.
E-mail: jlee@desnews.com; lisa@desnews.com
