SEATTLE - Pike Place Market, one of the many places that draws people to Washington, is advertised to potential visitors through the state's travel planner More than 300,000 of them are handed out every year and 70,000 more are printed off the state's tourism website.
But now that the state office is set to close on June 30, items like the travel planner could go away, and some fear the money could go away as well.
"A lot of states have reduced spending, but we could be the first and maybe only one that's not funding tourism, which is not only a little embarrassing, but a little short sighted," said Tom Norwalk/ President and CEO, Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Norwalk is upset, and he's not alone.
The first big concern he and others have is money. The tourism office reports travelers spent more than $15 billion in the state in 2010. That generated close to a billion dollars in local and state tax revenues.
And roughly 144,000 jobs in the state rely on tourism.
Many in the industry credit the tourism office for attracting travelers through tools like its website, which receives 2 million hits a year.
"Marketing the state is like marketing any other product. If we are not out marketing, our competitors are, so we should not take for granted that those visitors are going to continue to come at the levels they have been," said Marsha Massey/ Executive Director, Washington State Tourism.
A group called the Tourism Alliance is meeting at the end of the month to discuss possible solutions. The group is made up of business owners from around the state, and among their goals will be to keep marketing moving and the state tourism website running.
"It's a Band-Aid for maybe the first year, but then this group, this alliance, is going to need to figure out fairly quickly what is that long-term solution that's really going to provide some marketing money," said Norwalk.
Norwalk says they would need to generate between $5-10 million annually to stay competitive with other states.
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