Dr. Downtown, David Brussat: Hard to Out-Edge Providence
David Brussat, GoLocalProv Dr. Downtown
Dr. Downtown, David Brussat: Hard to Out-Edge Providence
Providence ranked in the top five in such “edgy” categories as Geeky (No. 1), Hip/Cool, Intelligent and Quirky. The city’s art scene ranked second only to that of New York City. It ranked in the top five for Bakeries (No. 1), Bars, Cocktail Bars, Brunch, Coffee, Diners (No. 1), Hamburgers, Sandwiches, Pizza, Street Food/Food Trucks, Wine and Notable Restaurants (No. 2; New Orleans was No. 1 and New York City was No. 3). It ranked as the No. 2 city for a Gay-Friendly Vacation (Minneapolis-St. Paul was No. 1 and San Francisco was No. 3). It ranked as the No. 5 Girlfriend Getaway. It ranked No. 5 for Attractive People but, unlike Boston, did not make the top five in the category of Rude.
Why Providence didn't make the top five in Dive Bars I do not know, but a Washington, D.C., friend complained to me of the few places to get sloshed before noon. That was years ago. The demise of the Safari Lounge and Talk of the Town has not helped. The buildings that housed those famously grungy holes are history. Still, we did score No. 5 in Architecture/Cool Buildings, after Charleston, New Orleans, Chicago and D.C.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTSo do you suppose Travel + Leisure called up the Rhode Island Tourism Division or the Providence/Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau for help in compiling the data used to rank the city in these categories? Do Millennials and GenX’ers go to the web sites of tourism councils when they can go to quahog.org? How many go to our state tourism web site before choosing to visit the Ocean State? If they go after they decide, who cares?
These questions answer themselves. So what does the state tourism office and its six regional autarkies do that could not be done better by the people who operate the places visitors visit in Rhode Island? Alas, that question answers itself, too.
The Tourism Boondoggle
“RI Tourism Spending Lags Far Behind Rest of U.S.,” reads a recent GoLocal headline. It does not mean tourists spent less in Rhode Island than in most other states. It means that the state gave its tourism office less money than most other states. It budgeted only $710,000 for the Rhode Island Tourism Division (brought to you by Commerce RI), or .009 percent of the state’s $7.8 billion in expenditures in 2014.
With a little effort, Rhode Island could spend even less.
Last week’s thought experiment imagined cutting entire state agencies and programs as an untried strategy of economic development. “With little dollar support to date,” URI business professor Ed Mazze told GoLocal’s Stephen Beale, “the state has been able to develop a positive image among U.S. and foreign tourists.” Good!
But Mazze wants to spend more rather than less. He puts the cart before the horse. Rhode Island has a positive image not because the state promotes tourism, or because it pops a 6 percent hotel tax on top of every room night, but because there are more beaches, parks, mansions, historical sites, museums, restaurants, etc., per capita here than in most states, which need to spend a lot of tourism dollars to bamboozle tourists into visiting them.
The state might zero out its tourism budget, pocket half the money and dole out the rest to private and nonprofit tourism attractions to use as they see fit. But the cost of setting up a new bureaucracy to oversee such a division of expenditures would probably make a serious dent in the remaining $355,000. Why not just lop off the whole thing.
Lop off also the regional tourism councils: Discover Newport, the Providence Tourism Council, the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, the South County Tourism Council, the Block Island Tourism Council, and the Warwick Department of Tourism, Culture & Development. Or merge them with the R.I. Tourism Division and lop them all off at once. But let’s keep the office in the Providence/Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau that books conventions and meetings at facilities around the state by making actual phone calls to organizations. They do real, specific, hard work.
Blackstone Valley Etc., Etc. Park
As a national park, it cannot take part in our thought experiment. As a national park, however, it spends federal funds. Based on what I’ve seen, those funds must go almost entirely into cartography and brochure making. Top talent there produces material of extraordinary beauty and informational quality. Or at least it did years ago
Years ago, Providence lost a bureaucratic battle over whether Roger Williams National Memorial should be part of the heritage corridor. But since the memorial is the place you are most likely to find out about the corridor, the city may have won the war. You can’t visit the memorial without visiting Providence.
Click here for David Brussat’s blog
Tourism Promotion: See How Much States Spend
48.
State: Pennsylvania
Tourism Spending: $5.8 Million
Total Expenditures: $85.3 Million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0068%
47.
State: Indiana
Tourism Spending: $2.3 million
Total Expenditures: $28.1 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0082%
Photo: Diego Delso
46.
State: Ohio
Tourism Spending: $5 million
Total Expenditures: $58.2 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0086%
45.
State: Rhode Island
Tourism Spending: $710,000
Total Expenditures: $7.8 Million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0090%
44.
State: Iowa
Tourism Spending: $2.4 million
Total Expenditures: $19.5 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0123%
Photo: Ben Franske
43.
State: New York
Tourism Spending: $19 million
Total Expenditures: $133 Million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0144%
42.
State: Georgia
Tourism Spending: $6.8 million
Total Expenditures: $42.4 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0160%
41.
State: New Jersey
Tourism Spending: $9 million
Total Expenditures: $50.8 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0177%
40.
State: Massachusetts
Tourism Spending: $10.9 million
Total Expenditures: $57.5 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0189%
39.
State: Delaware
Tourism Spending: $1.9 million
Total Expenditures: $9.1 million
% of State Budget Spent on tourism Promotion: 0.0213%
38.
State: California
Tourism Spending: $50 million
Total Expenditures: $211.4 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0236%
37.
State: North Carolina
Tourism Spending: $10.4 million
Total Expenditures: $43 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0242%
36.
State: Minnesota
Tourism Spending: $8.5 million
Total Expenditures: $33,074,000,000
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0257%
35.
State: Maryland
Tourism Spending: $10.4 million
Total Expenditures: $36.2 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0287%
34.
State: Kentucky
Tourism Spending: $7.4 million
Total Expenditures: $25.6 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0288%
33.
State: Kansas
Tourism Spending: $4.8 million
Total Expenditures: $13.9 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0344%
Photo: Gerald B. Keane
32.
State: West Virginia
Tourism Spending: $7.7 million
Total Expenditures: $22.3 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0345%
31.
State: Mississippi
Tourism Spending: $6.4 million
Total Expenditures: $18.5 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0346%
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
30.
State: Wisconsin
Tourism Spending: $14.9 million
Total Expenditures: $42.7 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0348%
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
29.
State: Tennessee
Tourism Spending: $11.7 million
Total Expenditures: $30.4 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0384%
Photo: Jeremy Atherton
28.
State: Virginia
Tourism Spending: $17.6 million
Total Expenditures: $45.7 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0385%
27.
State: Texas
Tourism Spending: $37.2 million
Total Expenditures: $93.2 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0399%
Photo: Copernico Contreras
26.
State: Arizona
Tourism Spending: $12.9 million
Total Expenditures: $28.2 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0456%
Photo: Luca Galuzzi
25.
State: Oregon
Tourism Spending: $12 million
Total Expenditures: $25.8 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0465%
Photo: Max Schwarz
24.
State: Alabama
Tourism Spending: $11.6 million
Total Expenditures: $24.5 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0473%
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
23.
State: New Mexico
Tourism Spending: $7.1 million
Total Expenditures: $14.6 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0483%
22.
State: Louisiana
Tourism Spending: $13.2 million
Total Expenditures: $27.3 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0483%
21.
State: Oklahoma
Tourism Spending: $10.7 million
Total Expenditures: $21.4 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0499%
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
20.
State: Missouri
Tourism Spending: $11.6 million
Total Expenditures: $22.9 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0506%
Photo: Daniel Schwen
19.
State: Colorado
Tourism Spending: $14.7 million
Total Expenditures: $29.035 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0506%
Photo: Gorgo
18.
State: Nebraska
Tourism Spending: $5.2 million
Total Expenditures: $10.1 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0512%
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
17.
State: Michigan
Tourism Spending: $27.4 million
Total Expenditures: $47.3 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0578%
Photo: Dave Parker
16.
State: Vermont
Tourism Spending: $2.9 million
Total Expenditures: $4.9 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0584%
Photo: Jared C. Benedict
15.
State: South Carolina
Tourism Spending: $13.6 million
Total Expenditures: $22.2 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0612%
Photo: MoodyGroove
14.
State: Arkansas
Tourism Spending: $15.1 million
Total Expenditures: $21.4 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0704%
13.
State: Illinois
Tourism Spending: $55.4 million
Total Expenditures: $65.2 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0849%
12.
State: Florida
Tourism Spending: $56.2 million
Total Expenditures: $63.9 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0879%
11.
State: North Dakota
Tourism Spending: $5.1 million
Total Expenditures: $5.712 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.0893%
10.
State: Idaho
Tourism Spending: $7.2 million
Total Expenditures: $6.691 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.1076%
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
9.
State: Utah
Tourism Spending: $14.4 million
Total Expenditures: $12.679 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.1136%
Photo: Bernard Gagnon
8.
State: Maine
Tourism Spending: $9.8 million
Total Expenditures: $7.679 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.1276%
7.
State: New Hampshire
Tourism Spending: $6.9 million
Total Expenditures: $5.017 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.1375%
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
6.
State: Wyoming
Tourism Spending: $12.6 million
Total Expenditures: $9.132 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.1380%
Photo: Shiras Rajendran
5.
State: Alaska
Tourism Spending: $17 million
Total Expenditures: $11.838 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.1436%
4.
State: Nevada
Tourism Spending: $14.8 million
Total Expenditures: $8.897 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.1663%
Photo: John Phelan
3.
State: Montana
Tourism Spending: $12.3 million
Total Expenditures: $6.04 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.2036%
2.
State: South Dakota
Tourism Spending: $12.2 million
Total Expenditures: $4.098 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.2977%
1.
State: Hawaii
Tourism Spending: $75 million
Total Expenditures: $11.584 million
% of State Budget Spent on Tourism Promotion: 0.6474%
Photo: Cristo Vlahos
