While Colorado has been resting on its reputation as a tourist Mecca, competing states with clever marketing programs have been grabbing at our lunch. The legislature should put its shoulder into the tourism game by passing House Bill 1201 by Reps. Al White, R-Winter Park, and Tom Plant, D-Nederland.
Our state is justly renowned for its skiing, but until 1993, Colorado’s real strength was as a summer haunt as tourists flocked to see, hike and climb our majestic mountains. That year, voters repealed a 0.2 percent sales tax on tourism-related expenditures that had fueled the state’s successful $12 million marketing campaign.
The effects of ending our tourism promotions were immediate – and disastrous. Within a year, Colorado dropped from first place nationally to 17th – and has never returned to the top 10 summer destinations. By 1995, Colorado had lost a third of its market share among U.S. tourists. The decline translated into a drop of $2 billion annually in visitor spending by the end of the decade.
Obviously, scrapping tourism promotion cost far more in jobs and lost taxes than it saved. But efforts to revive the marketing program ran afoul of the 1992 Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. Money to promote tourism fell under TABOR’s spending limits, while TABOR’s rigid revenue limits meant the extra income generated by tourism had to be refunded to taxpayers who hadn’t paid those taxes in the first place. The passage of Referendum C last November lifted those revenue ceilings and at last gave Colorado a chance to run tourism promotion like a business – spending money to make money.
HB 1201 does just that by earmarking 50 percent of the gaming taxes now assigned to the state general fund for tourism promotion – about $20 million. Such an increase is long overdue because Colorado spent just $5 million on tourism promotion this year. Neighboring states outspent us – Arizona, $15.9 million; Utah, $13.6 million; New Mexico, $10.5 million; and Wyoming, $6.9 million.
It’s no disservice to our neighbors to say that Colorado has even more majestic vistas than they do. It’s time to invite the world back to Colorful Colorado.
