May 13--This is National Tourism Week. Please send your condolences to the Kansas tourism industry.

Hoteliers, attraction promoters and others in the long-suffering Sunflower State thought this would be the year Kansas lawmakers finally would wake up and smell the tourism coffee. It didn't happen.

In the Legislature's waning hours last week, the Kansas House refused to consider a Senate-approved measure that would have given the state's tourism industry a reliable and annually expanding funding source to build and promote itself.

It also would have established a quasi-public Kansas Tourism Corp. to coordinate the state's disparate tourism efforts. That became an issue.

The Kansas Travel and Tourism Division is part of the Kansas Commerce Department, a political agency. But the pols at Commerce didn't warm to the notion of one of their divisions growing up and moving out of the house.

"We agreed with the sentiment, but we disagreed with the creation of a separate agency," Commerce spokesman Joe Monaco said. Agency officials feared the state's economic development marketing message could become muddled with too many hands stirring the pot, he said.

Meanwhile, the Legislature had other battles to fight, and tourism wasn't on anybody's front burner. The resistance from Commerce might have been just enough to keep any kind of majority from coalescing on the side of the tourism industry.

The shame is that Kansas, at long last, has shiny tourism trinkets to sell, and more are on the way, including resort casinos and the $750 million Schlitterbahn Vacation Village water theme park near Kansas Speedway.

But in the national tourism marketing game, it looks like Kansas will be sitting on the bench at least one more year.

According to the latest tally by the Travel Industry Association, Kansas' 2007 tourism budget of $4.37 million ranked at No. 44 among the 50 states. The figure is $4.12 million this year, and for the 2009 fiscal year that begins July 1, lawmakers have earmarked $3.4 million, plus an estimated $800,000 slice of Commerce's marketing budget.

That does not even keep up with inflation and is demonstrably not enough for Kansas to play in the national tourism game.

You can build it, but they won't come if you don't advertise it.

The Travel Industry Association promotes the nation's $740 billion-a-year visitor industry as the job-creating, tax-generating business that it is.

That's a point Kansas lawmakers may be missing. Just like business, there is a tourism "return on investment," and cities and states measure it in many different ways. For instance, the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association says its visitors spend $37 for every dollar the agency spends wooing them to town.

In Texas, officials say return on investment ranges from $10 to $16. Whatever the number, there's no disputing that advertising works-- and pays.

This year's 25th observance of National Tourism Week aims a spotlight on a massive industry that represents 2.6 percent of the nation's gross domestic product.

Remarkably, however, there are few Big Tourism companies out there driving the thing. The national association notes that 97 percent of the industry is made up of small entrepreneurs.

That stunning fact is an overarching reason why public funding and cooperative marketing is so vital to each state's mostly mom-and-pop travel industry.

Most states get it. Kansas is still working on it.

KC kudos

For the first time, Kansas City's convention facilities have won a Prime Site award from Facilities & Destinations magazine.

The trade journal for North American and Caribbean association and corporate meeting planners annually rates and honors the best venues for quality, special features and customer service.

Each year, dozens of venues are listed. But Kansas City had never won a spot, until now.

Congratulations to convention facilities director Oscar McGaskey, his staff and a handful of nose-to-the-grindstone public servants, like former City Council Member Chuck Eddy, who labored for years to bring Bartle Hall and the city's downtown convention district out of the darkness.

Their largely unheralded efforts are starting to pay big dividends.

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More tourism info Local tourism agencies observe National Tourism Week in a variety of ways.

There's a "Be A Tourist in Your Own Town" photo contest in Independence. Merriam is offering $100 gas cards and free hotel rooms to new group tours. Kansas City is about to announce its annual Visitors Choice award winners, selected by real tourists.

For more information about regional, state and national tourism, go to www.visitkc.com/rda, www.visitmo.com, www.travelks.com and www.tia.org.

To reach Rick Alm, call 816-234-4785 or send e-mail to ralm@kcstar.com.

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