{"id":6907,"date":"2011-07-12T15:46:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-12T15:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/washington-becomes-first-us-state-to-eliminate-tourism-office\/"},"modified":"2011-07-12T15:46:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-12T15:46:00","slug":"washington-becomes-first-us-state-to-eliminate-tourism-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/washington-becomes-first-us-state-to-eliminate-tourism-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Becomes First US State to Eliminate Tourism Office"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">\n\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">\n<strong>Washington State can no longer afford to sell itself <\/strong>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\nFaced with budget constraints and tough choices, Washington has become the first state to eliminate its tourism office as a result of the stubborn economy. State officials say the decision came down to cutting money from its advertising efforts or financing from public programs such as schools.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\nHowever, some warn that the state is making a mistake in cutting its tourism funds, especially as many others re-brand themselves through new marketing campaigns. Al White, head of the Colorado Tourism Office, said his state still hasn&rsquo;t fully recovered since it went without funding 18 years ago in 1993.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe complete shutdown of the office follows years of deep budget cuts. The Washington State Tourism Office employed six people and had a $1.8 million budget in 2010. That was down sharply from $7 million the previous year.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<em>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/em>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<em><br \/>\nSource:&nbsp;<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bendbulletin.com\/apps\/pbcs.dll\/article?AID=\/20110712\/NEWS0107\/107120385\/1009\/NEWS01&amp;nav_category=NEWS01\" target=\"_blank\">Bend Bulletin<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Washington State can no longer afford to sell itself &nbsp; Faced with budget constraints and tough choices, Washington has become the first state to eliminate its tourism office as a result of the stubborn economy. State officials say the decision came down to cutting money from its advertising efforts or financing from public programs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}