Davis Launches Campaign to Boost Tourism in State

Gov. Gray Davis announced Saturday that he has earmarked $5 million for an ad campaign urging Californians to don their tourist hats and take a vacation in the Golden State.

“If you take a trip and invest money in our economy, it is literally an act of modern-day patriotism,” Davis said while standing on Fisherman’s Wharf, where tourism is markedly down.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, travel and tourism in California and across the nation have plummeted, resulting in massive layoffs of airline and hotel workers.

In the hotel industry alone, 35% of unionized workers in San Francisco have been laid off, according to union officials.

In Los Angeles and Santa Monica, nearly 50% of unionized workers have lost their jobs or had their hours drastically reduced as business and leisure travel have dwindled and conventions have been canceled or postponed.

California, with its theme parks, mountains, ocean and world-class cities, supports a $75-billion tourism industry, twice as much as New York and five times as much as Hawaii, according to Davis.

Tourism is one of the state’s top four industries.

And a vast majority of the state’s money-spending vacationers are Californians themselves, enjoying the diversity of their home state.

John Marks, head of the Convention and Visitors Bureau here, noted Saturday that the number of visitors to Fisherman’s Wharf on a warm and sunny day was 55% less than usual.

Hotels were less than half full, and the restaurant trade is down significantly, he said.

Davis emerged from a lunch with tourism industry executives and Mayor Willie Brown to plead with Californians to reverse the toll the attacks are taking on this key state industry by boarding a plane, dining out and staying in a hotel.

“Terrorists want us to change our way of life,” Davis said. “They want to divide us, one against the other. We are not going to let them do either.”

The $5 million that Davis proposes to spend on radio, television and newspaper advertising will be administered by the state’s Trade and Commerce Agency.

The ads will begin appearing in October and November throughout the state--in time for the holiday travel and shopping season.

Davis said the message will be clear: “The message is life goes on,” the governor said, later shaking hands and buying a cup of Boston clam chowder from a sidewalk vendor.

Davis flew to the Bay Area from Los Angeles on Southwest Airlines. He made a public point of traveling on commercial airliners last week after his administration scrapped his security detail’s plan to lease a private jet.