This just in from Arizona Tourist News. Tony Venuti, editor of ATN suggests the State take the money from the department to keep the State Parks open. Here are his thoughts.  I’d love to hear your thoughts so be sure to weigh in on the comments and let us know what you think of so many State Park closures!

Imagine the horror of all, literally, to all who hold dear that which is our birthright. Arizona State Parks closing. No more the natural surroundings familiar to all those who treasure the myriad of experiences that our Parks provide. We identify with our Natural Theme park, that which IS Arizona…to deny parks is to essentially deny our birthright.

Who will assure the right of our citizens to what naturally belongs to them? Arizona State Parks has a 7 million dollar short fall. Why do we keep open the Office of Tourism? Their 15 million dollar budget surely could be sacrificed in order to save experiences in the wilderness coming to nothing but a foregone thought. You wish to talk about jobs saved…yes, I guess perhaps that is the underlying truth…the jobs of many bureaucrats, most as we know now paid over 30% better wages, on average, than the private sector. You want to talk smart, to talk common sense… consider this…

Build it and they will come? How about “take it away and they will not come.” Simple math. Hundreds of thousands of visitors to the State Parks contribute in countless ways, including many ways that we can, in fact, count. We can count on restaurants to the tune of 20% of those situated around closed state parks, 20% right now…zip, those businesses are gone…so how many total employees? How about the taxes lost to the state both from the employees and from the profitable businesses …that is in another column…but you get the idea.

Imagine travelers from California, who account for, with Arizonans, 66% of our total travel. I will tell you not only what I can SEE but what we all can COUNT on — that a well planned trip to Arizona is now diverted to another more enlightened universe that treasures its natural experiences.

So what does a Tourism media expert think about all of this? Simple…Let go of Arizona Office of Tourism…streamline it down to the home office, they already triangulate all of their major marketing responsibilities to advertising agencies…you can get this all done for 2.9 Million dollars…do the math…I did. Now let’s turn the lights on in the parks …and good night to all.

By, Tony Venuti, Publisher

AZ Tourist News

http://www.aztourist.com

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