Bad News For Tourism States
AND HOW SOUTH CAROLINA’S LAWMAKERS HAVE MADE OUR STATE’S SITUATION WORSE
FITSNews - July 2, 2008 - With national reports showing that travel this July 4th holiday is down, you’d think that states which rely on tourism to keep their economies up and running (like South Carolina) would be doing everything they could to lure more potential visitors.
Of course, that sort of common sense doesn’t penetrate the thick skulls of our boneheaded lawmakers, who decided to put our state’s tourism marketers into the field this year with one arm tied behind their backs.
Despite restoring a portion of destination-specific marketing dollars to South Carolina’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, the agency is still working with $11 million less in this year’s budget than it had last year.
Evidently, lawmakers felt that money was better spent on their pet project slush fund.
“(Reduced revenue) means serious changes,” PRT spokesman Marion Edmunds told FITSNews today. “We are having to scale back on the advertising of our product.”
Wonderful. Perfect timing.
For example, South Carolina will now be unable to continue targeted campaigns in big city markets like Chicago, marketing efforts which have had tremendous success in expanding our state’s tourism base after the post 9-11 downturn.
“It’s not going to be the kind of year we’ve always had,” Edmunds says. “There’s a lot of uncertainty. People are waiting to see how bad it gets.”
Edmunds did say that gas prices - which have been blamed as the chief cause of the tourism slowdown - probably don’t impact travel budgets as significantly as some might think.
“Gas is what sticks in our minds and what hits us because we see those numbers rolling every time we fill up,” he says. “But in reality, that’s a small part of a travel budget compared to food and accomodations.”
SCPRT will track tourism numbers closely over the next two months to see if things pick up. In fact, you can check on our state’s progress yourself by visiting the agency’s tourism statistics webpage, which provides updated information on occupancy rates, revenue collections and other key industry indicators.
Hopefully, South Carolina won’t suffer too badly this summer, but if it does you can thank Dan Cooper and Hugh Leatherman for cutting funding to this critical agency so they could continue to play pork kings in Columbia.
Comments
By Gentleman Farmer on July 2nd, 2008 at 2:56 pm
But the FFA’s getting cool new digs!
By Hey Will... on July 2nd, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Where’s the school district story? The anticipation is killing me…
By ad guy on July 2nd, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Marketing is the last thing you want to cut during signs of bad times - especially for an effort that produces real returns on investment such as tourism.
By Clayton Bigsby on July 2nd, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Yeah Will, my testicles have been sucked inside my body all week in anticipation of the sex, lies, and educrats story!
By Stroker Ace on July 2nd, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Fits,
The Senate took 11 million from commerce and put it in PRT’s budget. But some folks wouldn’t have it aka Sanfordians and the Governor threatened a veto, and then with the state having to fund Medicaid without the help of the passed but vetoed cigarette tax (and anyone who says that a cigarette tax violates a tax pledge is a moron, because it only taxes the willing…and stupid for that matter). Budget cuts were across the board, and there were no earmarks, but I see that you will always find a way to twist the story to your readers liking. I agree that cutting the budget doesn’t help, but times are lean….but hey we got those HIDEOUS new license plates with Travel2SC.com on em
By OldPoolMom on July 2nd, 2008 at 7:31 pm
1. StrokerDude,
Smokers aren’t stupid–we are willing…& dangerously adventurous.
2. Will,
Give us the poop on the porky, conscienceless educrats.
3. Will,
Please try a little harder to find tourism photos with natural breasts. Those are fake. They sit artificially high, where they should be squat.
By Believe It Not (a.k.a. Sic Willie's Stalker) on July 2nd, 2008 at 8:05 pm
sic(k) willie,
Bland porno will not keep the perverts reading. And they make up 99 44/100’s of your regular readers. But you can count on the BIN News Editorial Staff to stay focused on your sad little porno site no matter how much it insults the intelligence of grownups.
The posts by some of the perverts to this entry seem a little off topic.
Looks like you’re trying to pump up interest in your next attack on children. Didn’t you hear about what Jakie said? The voucher scam is dead in S.C. Pack up your “baggies” of scam money and forget it.
BIN News Editorial Staff
Flair and Balance
P.S. While readers are asking for updates, how about an update on who is the Midland’s elected official you boldly claimed has a Strom problem. You promised and promised details. Why so silent?
By The $11 Million Cut That Cost SC Much More on July 2nd, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Shaving $11 million from promoting SC tourism is very unwise in these shaky economic times. Each dollar entering the state from somewhere else turns over something like 6 times.
Furthermore, when demand is soft, people forsake longer trips for shorter ones. And with shorter trips, traditional air travelers convert to auto travelers, which can only be a plus for a state like SC.
Lastly, drops in hotel occupancy hurts the state’s unemployment, especially in the lower wage bracket. Consequently, more people seek welfare and increase the state’s expense.
Yeah, cutting $11 million is kinda dumb, SC.
By baked on July 3rd, 2008 at 7:38 am
BIN
I’ve never read an attack on children on this blog. The argument of most sensible people is against the bureaucrats running the SC Dept of Education who never miss an out-of-state conference at which they want to spend your tax dollars on hotels, meals, etc. But, I guess if you keep repeating the lie enough, it might actually stick Mr Goebbels.
You call that picture porn? Until we see some money shots and penetration, they’re just pictures.
By Natasha on July 3rd, 2008 at 8:48 am
BIN’s never been to the beach. Poor guy. Someone should put him on a plane to Nice or maybe the Dominican Republic. The beaches there would really put him in a tizzy - hell - he might never come back! But then again, BIN has probably never been out of SC, let alone on a plane to anywhere. But I bet he’d look good in a skimpy speedo.
It’s called a blog. It’s funny. It’s satirical. It’s political. And it’s hilarious when you get your conservative thong in a wad over a photo of a woman in a bathing suit…Maybe you think women should be wearing hijabs.
Get a life dude - and if you’re such a prude, why are you visiting this site every day, multiple times a day? Who’s paying YOU?
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