The broad-based industry support for New York’s bid to land the 2012 Summer Olympics is well documented in this week’s lead story by Christine Champagne. Artisans and companies from all walks of the commercialmaking business have contributed to short films which will be an integral part of the Big Apple’s pitch presentation to the United States Olympic Committee next week. The spot community has also turned out a series of PSAs—which have begun airing on local New York stations—to help drive awareness of and generate enthusiasm for the push to land the ’12 Summer Games.
This coming together of commercialmaking folk is the latest industry effort to help bring about economic recovery. As chronicled in SHOOT, the We Love New York coalition sprang out of the 9/11 tragedy and its endeavors are ongoing to help the Big Apple—as well as the U.S.—get back on firm financial footing.
Last week, a report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the Travel Business Roundtable and the International Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus found that New York, Chicago and Los Angeles have in that order lost the most revenue—literally billions of dollars—in international visitor spending. Those three cities have also seen tens of thousands of tourism-related jobs fall by the wayside. This financial hit has taken place over the past couple of years, first due to a sluggish economy and then to the adverse effect that the 9/11 terrorist attacks had on traveler’s psyches.
Estimates are that it could be many years before tourism bounces back to the high watermark levels set in 2000. Hence while the ’12 Summer Olympics may seem far away, the industry support for the NYC2012 campaign is highly relevant today.
The aforementioned study of U.S. cities that have perennially had large tourism industries also underscores another industry issue in parallel fashion. The research makes a case for federal help in selling the U.S. as a travel destination to prospective international visitors. The U.S. Conference of Mayors is asking Congress to create a national tourism marketing campaign to promote international travel to the states—a $103 billion market, annually. The U.S. is the only major industrialized nation in which the government doesn’t directly spend money on marketing tourism abroad.
Similarly, the U.S is believed to be the only major industrialized nation not to have a federal film commission and/or a formal national-based marketing program designed to keep and attract filming business. As reported on in SHOOT, Film US, an organization of nearly 200 local and state film commissions, has been trying to make some headway on these and other anti-runaway fronts.
It’s been proven that content shot in the U.S. helps to create exposure for locales, leading to tourism. But the parallel between filming and tourism is evident in other ways, perhaps most notably in the adverse impact brought about by apathy and the lack of a proactive marketing approach.
In this regard, a tourism study-related observation by Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, who chairs the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ travel and tourism unit, indeed applies not only to travel but also to the need to promote filming. Franklin is quoted in The Los Angeles Times as saying, "As tourism goes, so goes the economic well-being of our communities. We cannot leave it to chance."
