National campaign urges voters to consider potential tourism dollars

By Ashley Mackin | Downtown News

On its 16th of 37 stops, the U.S. Travel Association’s Vote Travel bus tour visited Petco Park in downtown on April 19. The bus tour began in Memphis, Tenn. on March 27 and ends in Tampa, Fla. on May 21.

With the message of “Vote Travel” when it comes to candidates and issues voters support in elections, Michael Jacobson, manager of grassroots efforts for the U.S. Travel Association, said the purpose of the bus’s visit was to educate voters. He said the tourism industry creates 14.4 million jobs nationwide and generates $1.9 trillion for the national economy.

“Our main message is to get out there and ask people to not necessarily focus on Republican or Democrat throughout 2012, with it being such a heated election year, but to instead vote travel because travel is a bipartisan issue,” Jacobson said.

Saying the Bus is designed to mimic a presidential campaign, Jacobson said he asks voters to “keep in mind that travel is an important economic engine when they go to the voting polls,” and that it is important for elected officials to enact policies that support travel and tourism.

“A lot of times elected officials take our industry for granted and what we do for the community,” he said. “They don’t realize the impact we have, so its one of our main objectives to get our elected officials to realize it and consider us when they make their decisions.”

District Three Councilmember Todd Gloria said tourism and travel are directly connected to the economy and jobs, issues about which he said his constituents are most concerned. “We know that for every voter [the priority] is the economy and jobs,” Gloria said. “We need to make sure they understand that tourism is directly connected to that. That’s what this effort is about today.”

Gloria said the bus tour is also designed to draw people’s attention to tourism’s impact on the economy, “especially in a place like San Diego, where so many people come to visit,” he said. “They spend their money, which helps creates jobs and improves our overall economy.”

Gloria also said people need to be aware of the tourism industry when they cast their votes. “I hope [voters] would understand the fortunes of our city are very much connected to the tourism industry,” he said, including when deciding which candidates to support.

For Gloria, one of those aims includes the Convention Center expansion project, of which Gloria is a supporter. “When you look at our efforts to expand the Convention Center, that’s really ground zero when it comes to the effort to attract tourists here,” he said. “We believe that expanding the Convention Center not only will allow us to keep important conventions like ComiCon in San Diego, but it’ll also create 4,000 temporary construction jobs and 7,000 permanent jobs.”

Joe Terzi, president and CEO of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the U.S. Travel Association is an important partner because of the representation they offer in Washington, D.C. “U.S. Travel… works with all of our country’s legislators and even President Obama in trying to promote travel and communicate how important travel is to our economy,” he said.

“This is a really important campaign,” Terzi said. “[Tourism] one of our key draws and we’re happy they stopped here to say hi.”

Gloria cited Sept. 11 as an example of people traveling less, and the economic impact that had on the economy. “After 9/11, people were terrified to travel. That had a huge impact on our economy,” he said.

“We’ve had other instances where elected officials have said, ‘you shouldn’t travel’ [or] ‘I wouldn’t want to fly right now.’ Those are kinds of messages [we see] and we have to have other voices out there,” Gloria said. “That’s why I wanted to lend my voice to say, ‘Travel is important. It’s good for business, it’s good for jobs and it’s good for our economy.’”