Chair of the committee, Rep. Terry Van Akkeren, D – Sheboygan, turned the gavel over to vice chair, Rep. Fred Clark, D-Baraboo, who had arranged the hearing in the Dells.

State Department of Tourism Secretary Kelli Trumble, the first speaker in the three-hour session, began by extolling the virtues of tourism. It ranks third largest among the state’s industries and contributes $13 billion per year to the state’s economy. More than 300,000 people in the state work in a tourism business, and tourists and tourism businesses contributed $2.1 billion in taxes to the state.

"I believe tourism is a cost-effective way to stimulate the economy," Trumble said, and the state has long relied on tax funds and partnering with the tourism industry to provide those economic benefits to the state. As an example, she pointed to the JEM program, which gives grants to promote tourism events. For every $1 the state puts into that program, $9 is returned to the economy, she said.

With the economic downtown and the state’s fiscal problems, the department took a 14 percent cut, Trumble said. The cuts were made in the department’s operations budget, not its marketing budget, she said.

While Wisconsin was cutting its tourism budget during the economic downturn, other states, specifically Michigan and Illinois increased theirs. Trumble said Michigan’s budget for tourism promotion went from $7 or $8 million to $30 million, using part of its tobacco settlement and a tax on car rentals.

This year, Trumble said Wisconsin’s visitor count will be down or holding its own while spending will be down.

Besides general tourism promotion, the tourism department needs to promote business travel, Trumble said. With the economic downtown and the negative publicity about business travel, a half million people have lost jobs in the hospitality sector, she said, noting they are people who fill jobs as bellmen, housekeepers and taxi drivers. Wisconsin has experienced a 20 percent loss of meeting and convention business, which could be a $78 million loss in business spending.

Business travel, which accounts for 30 percent of tourism in the state, was the largest growing segment of the hospitality industry, she said, until the economic downtown.

Rep. Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah, questioned a greater emphasis on business travel noting the Legislature has cut out travel. "I’m not sure corporate America is ready to start traveling again."

Trumble stressed the value of face-to-face meetings and the importance of investing in niche markets.

More than anything, the tourism department needs a long-term sustainable source of funding, Trumble said. She did not offer a suggestion on what that source would be.

She also stressed the need for ensuring that the room tax is used in localities around the state as it was intended – for tourism marketing.

As promotion goes up, the economic impact of tourism has tremendous growth, said Tom Diehl, president of Tommy Bartlett, Inc., and a long-time leader in the state’s tourism industry, having served for many years as head of the Governor’s Council on Tourism.

Last year, tourism was flat in the Dells, but instead of cutting promotions budget, the Dells Visitor Bureau dipped into its reserves and spent more. "You need to spend marketing dollars when the times are tough."

"The long and short of it is there will be no growth in the state," Diehl said without increasing the tourism promotions budget. "Wisconsin’s beauty has something for everyone, but it is going to turn into the best kept secret."

Clark asked Diehl what he expects to see change in the next 20 years in tourism.

"The Dells has enough visionary thinkers to react to the market," he said. The Dells is on the leading edge in tourism and the development here is homegrown. The Dells’ 100 plus years as a tourism destination has been created by the locals, he said.

Diehl told the committee it took 10 years to get the premier resort tax passed in the Legislature. Without it, the Dells, a dinky community of 5,000, could not afford the services it has and the community could not survive in the long run, he said

Since the Legislature allowed a doubling of the premier resort tax, Diehl said the communities here would be getting heavily involved in the sports and youth market. It will fund activities for the long-term success of the economy here, he said.

Wisconsin is being outspent by Michigan and Illinois in marketing, said Romy Snyder, executive director of the Wisconsin Dells Visitor and Convention Bureau. "We must maintain a comparative advertising budget."

State tourism ads help the Dells, she said. "In an economic downtown you can’t stop marketing," which is why the Dells Visitor Bureau took a half million from its reserves last year to continue to market. "You can’t go in and out of marketing."

Lola Roeh, chair of the Governor’s Council on Tourism, and of the Osthoff Resort and Aspira Spa at Elkhart Lake, said the goal of the council is to secure sustainable funding for the department for the long and short term. That will allow the state to remain competitive as the third largest industry in the state, she said.

Kaufert said the Legislature has difficulty saying no to the human element in the state budget in order to give money to tourism. He said the Legislature needs to hear a correlation between marketing and tourism spending.

Michigan targeted the Chicago market this year, Roeh said, and her area saw a decrease in market share.

Also speaking for more investment in tourism promotions was Chet Gerlach, executive director of the Association of Wisconsin Tourism Attractions. "Give us the opportunity to give to you. Let us grow the economy."

Gerlach also suggested the committee and state encourage "crazy entrepreneurs" in the state like the Watermans of the Dells who developed Great Wolf or Curly Lambeau who brought football to Green Bay or Alex Jordan who built a house on a rock.

Rep. Marlin Schneider, D-Wisconsin Rapids, said the state should use entrepreneurs to promote itself and should have exhibits of them at the capital. "Too many people in this state do not do anything but bad mouth the state."

"We need crazy entrepreneurs," said Rep. Mary Williams, R-Medford. "We need ways to get people a little help in starting a business." The hard part is the state has many needs, she said, adding that the state has to find a way to more for tourism.

This year, the state did less for tourism forcing the cuts in the department’s budgets. One of the cuts made by the Tourism Departments was renting from the Department of Transportation, the state’s nine Welcome Centers and staffing those centers, saving about $500,000 per year, Trumble said.

In the hearing, Karna Hanna, executive director of the Sauk County Economic Development Corporation said she contacted chambers of commerce in the county and asked their comments for the tourism committee. One issue broached by several of the chamber officials was the reopening the Welcome Center. It was one of three recommendations from Hanna’s contacts with the chambers. Others were to invest more money in marketing and provide more money for grants.

Rep. Steve Hilgenberg, D-Dodgeville, said he understands the importance of the Welcome Centers, but the legislators have the dilemma of being accused of raising taxes and not cutting spending. "You can’t have it both ways. When we cut, cut, cut, you see the results."

Kaufert said he thought the Tourism Department had arranged for the centers to be manned by the local visitor bureaus.

Trumble said the partnership was that visitors would be directed to local visitor bureaus or chambers of commerce. Recently, she said, the Department of Transportation allowed the Kenosha Visitor Bureau to use the Welcome Center without paying rent, and she hopes a similar arrangement can be made with the DOT for the centers in La Crosse and Beloit.

Kaufert said the Legislature should give the DOT a nudge, such as a letter encouraging it to allow use of the buildings.

Diehl defended Trumble’s decision to close the Welcome Centers, saying more people are going to the Internet to get vacation information rather than waiting until they get to a Welcome Center. The department, he said, must "hack away at the least efficient promotions."

The committee was also asked not to change the state law requiring schools to start after Labor Day. Steve Friese, director of Baraboo’s Circus World Museum, said from Aug. 15 to Labor Day, Circus World had 12,000 visitors or 21 percent of its attendance. Those visitors spend an average of $55, and if Sauk County did not have them, it would lose $650,000 in tourist spending. He also said that visitors to Circus World in August spend 35 percent more than those who come in June. "We would sacrifice $10,000 a day to close early, before Labor Day," Friese said.

Friese spoke of how well the museum was doing this year. The cool weather helped increase attendance this year, as well as advertising the museum as an attraction, not a museum. In 2008, the museum lost $22,000 the week it had to close because of the floods. "CNN broadcasting live from the Dells did more damage than the flood," he said.