10/22/2013

Imagine a World without Travel

(The following is the speech presented by OTA Executive Director Melinda Huntley at the Ohio Tourism Leadership Dinner, Oct. 16, 2013, during the Ohio Conference on Tourism in West Chester, Ohio)

Imagine a world without tourism.

A world where we never travel beyond 50 miles. We never take a getaway or a vacation. We only Skype our friends and relatives who live elsewhere, and we don’t travel for business meetings, conferences, and conventions.

What would our world look like?

Well, obviously this room would be empty. In fact this entire hotel would not exist, right? Neither would its 130-plus jobs – corporate, managerial, and front-line.

But I want you to dig deeper. Think about what else would change in our communities, state, and country. Because the real power of tourism can’t even come close to being measured if you only look at our hotels, attractions, museums, convention facilities, airports, restaurants, wineries, events, etc., now can it? If we were to shut our doors, lock our gates, and close our ticket offices, would the world be a different place?

And if you’re having trouble envisioning this scenario, just look at what’s happening right now with the federal shutdown. An estimated $152 million a day is being lost because national parks are closed and government travel contracts have been cancelled or delayed. $152 million a day. That’s a real loss.

So much so that at least five states – Utah, New York, Colorado, Arizona, and South Dakota – are footing the bill to reopen some of their attractions, and at least two more states are in serious discussions about doing the same. Is it because they’re missing the revenue from sales only at these places? Absolutely not.

What they’re feeling is the loss of visitor spending in their communities – loss of sales at gas stations, retail shops, convenient stores, restaurants, hotels, and other venues, and, perhaps even more devastating, the loss of sales tax revenue in their local and state coffers. 

So what would happen in a world with travel?

With a show of hands, how many of you purchase office supplies?

Have an accountant?

Use other financial services, including banks and investment officers?

Purchase produce, restaurant equipment, vending services, uniforms, cleaning supplies and services?

Have expanded or renovated recently, using engineers, construction workers, electricians, plumbers?

Imagine a world without travel.

What would happen to our suppliers? How many of their customers depend on the travel dollars flowing through Ohio? Would they have to cut back, lay off employees, or close their doors?

I was speaking about the power of Ohio travel in Marysville recently, and after my presentation, the owner of a local office supply business came up to me. She said, “I came to this morning’s presentation not thinking it had anything to do with my business; but I spent the entire time thinking about how my business depends on those who depend on the traveler dollar.”

Imagine a world without travel.

Unemployment rates would rise . . . dramatically. In Ohio, tourism and hospitality is the fourth largest employer. Travel-related spending supports more than 443,000 Full Time Equivalent jobs.

And what about these jobs? I’m tired of our industry being questioned about the value of these jobs.

We recently took some Ohio House members on a tour of Kalahari, but we didn’t show them the rooms or the water slides. What we showed them were the executive chefs, sales managers, engineers, and dozens of other professionals at work. Millions of us choose tourism and hospitality as a career, and We’re. Proud. Of. It.

And what about our front-line staff members, those who are top-of-mind when most people think about our industry, because these are the employees most people ever see? According to a new USTA research report, those who begin their careers in tourism end up making more in their careers than any other industry, other than financial services. Why?

We develop employable workers. What skills are developed in your front-line workers?  Customer service.  Creativity.  Time management.  Management and supervision. These are some of the skills most in demand by employers of all kinds, and our industry produces these candidates, whether they choose to stay in our industry or go elsewhere.

Imagine a world with tourism.

What would happen in your local communities and in our state without the tax revenue generated through the sales of tourism-related goods and services?   Well for one thing, every one of us would be paying 600 dollars more in taxes per household just to maintain the same level of government services, such as fire and police protection, libraries, road maintenance, and more.

Now, imagine our minds in a world without travel. A world where we are never exposed to different ideas, different people, different places. How creative would we be then? How functional would we be? How willing would be to accept people and customs different than ourselves?

What would our world look like?

Imagine a world without travel.  We could go on and on.

But we’ll stop there. It’s not a world, a state, or a community where I would want to live. How about you?     

Yet so many continue to question our industry’s worth and value. Oh, I see the tides are changing, particularly at the local community level, in places like Cleveland where they’ve identified tourism as one of the priority economic clusters for the coming years. But we have a lot more work to do in making sure others understand.

Maybe it’s in the way we communicate.  Proud of our growth, which incidentally, is outpacing GDP growth, we tend to talk about ourselves – our room nights, our direct revenue, our occupancy rates – when what we really need to talk more about is what that growth means to our local communities, our states, our nation, and our citizens. What does it mean when Cleveland’s RevPar is the fastest growing of all U.S. central states?

Don’t tell. Show them.

Show them the virtuous cycle of what happens when communities and states promote and support tourism. Promoting travel at a competitive level results in increased travelers coming to our state. These travelers spend money at our businesses. This spending increases jobs, investments, business profits and tax revenues.

Note that I said competitive level, for tourism can be viewed as a product, and like any other product, smart business leaders understand that even the best brands lose market share if their promotional budgets lag behind their competitors.

And if we are not focused on increasing traveler spending, then that cycle is broken.

Our industry has emerged as a key driver of economic recovery, in Ohio and throughout the country. We’re not the golden goose, but there are few, if any, golden geese around.

We’re poised for the future. Including tonight’s Ohio Tourism Leadership Academy graduates, we have 69 industry professionals who are ready to lead, ready to grasp opportunities. And those of you in this room care enough about the industry to be here. It’s your future. Be involved in shaping it.

Our state and our nation must build upon their competitive advantages. Our industry is growing, and it’s a bright spot that should be leveraged. Leverage the momentum, for we’ve yet to reach our full potential.  For we’ve achieved this with clipped wings. Given a competitive message and investment, we can soar, increasing business revenue, jobs, and tax dollars.    

And this added demand throughout the economic supply chain boosts job skills, growth and retention, and spurs investment in other industries indirectly related to our industry. Such as the office supply store in Marysville.

Or R.E. Middleton Construction in Mason, Ohio, who was quoted two months ago saying, “Kings Island is the steadiest customer I have. Our market is still horribly bad, but Kings Island is a place where it is still good. That has allowed my company to grow in the past five years.”

Imagine a world without travel?

I can’t.