Spring 2018

6  • PENNSYLVANIA RESTAURANT & LODGING matters • Spring 2018 CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE Jim Gratton I HOPE THE NEW YEAR is off to a great start for all of you. My start to the year has been extremely rewarding traveling the state to attend the chapter installation events and getting the opportunity to meet many of you. I also recently spent a morning with the PRLA team in Harrisburg to learn more about their priorities and goals. Their impressive passion and energy towards their jobs and our association truly energized me. As I travel the commonwealth, I am reminded that Pennsylvania has such diverse assets to offer visitors, from our beautiful natural resources to our historic attractions to our award-winning restaurant scenes to our many cultural venues to our championship winning sports teams, that distinguish our state from others. However, can you name Pennsylvania’s tourism brand campaign? (“Pursue your Happiness,” BTW.) Meanwhile, I bet you have heard of “Pure Michigan” or “I Love New York.” Now I am sure you would agree Pennsylvania has as much or more to offer than Michigan and New York, but how are visitors to know that if they never hear about our assets? If the business across the street from you was spending almost 20 times more on marketing than you were, do you think they would have a competitive advantage in awareness over you? Well that is what New York is doing in spending $70 million (fiscal year 17–18, according to an April 2017 report by the NY State Tourism Association) on state tourism marketing compared to our dismal $4 million. What if I told you that for every dollar you invested, you would see about $3.40 in return? I am sure you would take that return on investment every time. Well that is what the commonwealth would make in additional tax revenue if it increased its spending on state tourism marketing. Now I know to our members, who are smart business people, these questions seem to have an obvious answer. Unfortunately, our state legislators do not always think from a common-sense business perspective. Our state spends only $4 million a year on marketing its second largest industry. According to a 2015 study by the highly respected research firm Tourism Economics, Pennsylvania ranks 45th out of 46 states reported in actual statewide marketing of tourism while every competitive state around us spends significantly more. In addition, the same study said that Pennsylvania needs to spend $30 million a year to be competitive. However, if the examples above are not validation that we are not spending enough on the marketing of state tourism, let’s consider more numbers. I’m a hotel guy so the numbers I look to compare are the state’s performance in RevPAR (revenue per available room, which is the hotel industry’s performance metric) to the national average. Our state results, again, illustrate the underperformance. In 2016, based on a CBRE Hotels report, the tourism industry’s national average in RevPAR grew 4.5 times more than Pennsylvania. When you consider the state hosted a large national event like the Democratic National Convention in 2016, the results are even more concerning. The 2017 numbers recently came in and, again, Pennsylvania performed below the national average. Tourism benefits every person in the commonwealth, from its tax revenue to job creation. Therefore, I ask for your help to spread our message that the tourism industry is vital to the success of the commonwealth and the state needs to spend more on marketing tourism. Since this is the social media issue, visit www.prla.org/tourismtoolkit for simple messages you can share on your personal and business social media pages. #PANeedsTourism • “Tourism benefits every person in the commonwealth, from its tax revenue to job creation.”