States plan to spend $602.7 million for travel and tourism development and promotion in fiscal year 2004–2005…
States plan to spend $602.7 million for travel and tourism development and promotion in fiscal year 2004–2005, according to the Travel Industry Association of America’s (TIA) 2004–2005 Survey of U.S. State and Territory Office Budgets. The figure increased 10.6 percent compared to last year’s actual budget. The survey includes responses from 47 states. Delaware, Indiana, New York, the five U.S. territories, and Washington, DC did not submit data.
The projected budgets for fiscal year 2004–2005 range from $69 million in Hawaii to $1.7 million in Rhode Island. Indicative of tourism’s continuing recovery, the majority of reporting states saw significant increases in their budgets. Most notable was Oregon, whose budget increased 134 percent from $3.99 million to $9.34 million.
Public sector funds are the primary source of all tourism office funding, and indeed the sole source for 32 of the 47 reporting states. Of the $602.7 million combined total projected budget, public sector funds represent 94.3 percent, or $568.1 million.
A considerable amount of each state’s tourism office budget is allocated for domestic advertising and sales promotion. Texas plans to spend the most on domestic advertising, budgeting $13.7 million for the year, followed by Florida ($10.8 million), Pennsylvania ($9.0 million), New Jersey ($8.7 million), and Arizona ($8.5 million).
Tourism offices plan to spend $21.2 million on international advertising and sales promotion for 2004–2005, an increase of 27.8 percent over 2003–2004. Florida plans to spend the most on international advertising and promotion ($4.7 million), followed by Texas ($1.8 million) and Oregon ($1.3 million).
Besides advertising through a variety of mediums, states use a number of other means to promote travel to their destinations, including toll-free phone numbers for visitor inquiries, annual governors conferences on tourism, press tours, travel-related research, and for some, offices in international cities.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
