Getting visitors to come

Sunday, March 22, 2009 | 2:07 a.m.

A construction trade association scheduled to conduct its annual convention for 400 people in June decided to cancel the event that was to be held at a resort, citing worries it would look bad at a time when companies are laying off employees.

Similar cancellations from other trade groups have contributed to a double-digit decline in out-of-state visitation, the worst drop-off since the months following the 9/11 attacks.

“We’re hoping that eventually this hysteria goes away,” a tourism official said.

This sharp decline in tourism is a crushing blow to a state that relies so heavily on sales tax revenue from visitors that it has no personal income tax. Piled on top of this is the fact that the state has been among the hardest hit by the home foreclosure crisis.

Yes, this certainly sounds like what is happening in Nevada. But the scenario we are describing was taken from a Tuesday story in The Wall Street Journal about Florida’s suffering tourism industry.

If anything, the story proves Las Vegas is not an isolated example when it comes to an area hurting from a sharp downturn in tourism.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman overreacted when President Barack Obama said last month of companies that accept federal bailout money: “You can’t get corporate jets, you can’t take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime.”

Goodman, concerned that businesses would stop holding conventions in Las Vegas, had demanded an apology from Obama even though the president never said tourists and business travelers shouldn’t come to the city. Instead, Obama simply said bailout recipients should not take taxpayer-funded junkets.

The real reason convention business is down in Las Vegas, as it is in Florida and other tourist destinations, is the sluggish economy. Even companies that aren’t taking government handouts are reducing travel to save money.

Instead of trying to make the president a scapegoat for our economic woes, business leaders, tourism officials and politicians should redouble their energies to entice visitors to rediscover Las Vegas.