The Facts

In Brief

• Independent research has demonstrated that Ohio receives $12 for every dollar it spends on tourism ad campaigns.  We feel it is essential to continue this campaign in order to:
  
  • Maintain a positive revenue source from visitor spending.
    
  • Generate additional GRF sales tax revenue for Ohio without increasing taxes.
    
  • Sustain Ohio jobs and prevent increased unemployment.
  
  
• Cutting the budget for the Ohio Tourism Division will only cost Ohio money, not save it.
  
  
• As the state struggles to balance the Ohio budget without raising taxes, please consider that tourism can be part of the solution.
  
  • Tourism supports Ohio businesses and jobs with visitor revenue from outside the state of Ohio.  Visitor spending in the state of Ohio produces much-needed tax revenue to support libraries, education, health care and other essential programs and services for the citizens of Ohio.
    

Economics

• The $5.1 million that the Ohio Tourism Division spends to promote travel to Ohio is a revenue generator, not an expense!
  
  
• Visitors spend roughly $38 billion annually in Ohio.
  
  
• Should there be a gap in marketing Ohio, the State could lose much of the $1.6 billion in direct state taxes that tourism generates each year.
  
  
• Local governments would struggle with a dip in the $1.1 billion per year visitor spending brings them in tax revenue.
  
  The hospitality industry directly employs the equivalent of more than 452,000 full-time positions, 62,000 of which are right here in central Ohio.
  

A Lesson from Other States

• We need to learn from the missteps of others. In 1993, Colorado eliminated its $12 million tourism promotion budget. (In comparison, today Ohio's budget is $5.1 million.)
  
  
  • Even with its natural lure of skiing and other tourism adventures, Colorado's domestic market share plunged quickly and dramatically, falling 30% in just two years.
    
    
  • Over time, the revenue loss increased to well over $2 billion annually.
    
    
  • It took until 2000, seven years later for the industry to convince the legislature to reinstate funding. By 2007, another seven years after funding was reinstated, travel to Colorado rebounded to an all-time high, with 28 million visitors.
    
  
  
• Our counterparts in Michigan are struggling with the same budget woes that Ohio faces and because of that, they have invested $30 million in their "Pure Michigan" campaign because it increases visitor spending and generates GRF tax revenue far beyond its initial expense.