Two chambers of two minds on tourism

greetingsA 33-7 vote in the Kansas Senate last month signaled a strong legislative desire to think bigger about tourism. But rather than act last week, a House committee opted to request an interim study of the proposal — to turn tourism efforts over to a new and better-funded agency. Maybe a tight budget year isn’t the time to revolutionize how Kansas promotes itself. Then again, more visitors would mean more revenue for the state and its businesses. Maybe next year.

4 Comments

  1. Ken
    Posted April 1, 2008 at 6:44 am | Permalink

    Add another state agency? Thought the republicans running the state were against growing the bureaucracy ….

  2. ksfarmgrrl
    Posted April 1, 2008 at 8:58 am | Permalink

    Kansas… as wingnutty as you think…

  3. ksagnostic
    Posted April 1, 2008 at 10:30 am | Permalink

    Many states have tried to shift their tax burden to visitors, with some success. The source of that success was tourism. Now, Kansas is never, ever going to have the kind of tourism that even states like Missouri and Colorado (or for that matter Oklahoma) have. But, Kansas does have natural resources and some real spots of beauty (and natural beauty is the hook that gets visitors to visit, or more likely in the the case of Kansas, linger in, a state). But, everyone from the Kansas State Farm Bureau to the legislature to the Governor’s office to the (truly extreme) state chamber of commerce don’t have a clue. Ksfarmgrrl has touched on how the water resources, including lakes, have been mismanaged. This is definitely true of state parks. However, it hasn’t necessarily been the management (we’ve had some very good people in natural resources and Wildlife and Parks, but they can only do so much when their departments are neglected) but the state government has rarely made conserving or utilizing natural resources a priority. In fact, they don’t even seem to know how. So, you get absolutely clueless crap like “Kansas, as Big as you Think” (there was actually a good slogan that was rejected in favor of this pathetic piece of pablum), state parks that have little to now funding for maintenance, much less upgrading, etc..

  4. Nano
    Posted April 1, 2008 at 11:02 am | Permalink

    Now that they took the giant rat down that used to stand beside I-70 out in Western Kansas, there’s no reason to even slow down. (sarcasm)
    Kansas has some beautiful country along I-70 and US 400 out east. We need to develop it and promote it.
    Promoting Kansas shouldn’t start with the Phelps name or mention of the state BOE. It would be great if we could project a positive image. I hear Kansans say they don’t care what everybody else thinks of us. That runs counter to self-promotion.