Initiative 200 Pinches State's Efforts
to Attract Tourists of Color
The Seattle Times Company Travel
Sunday, August 27, 2000 by Carol Pucci Seattle Times travel writer
Efforts to attract groups of ethnic minority tourists to Seattle have been hurt by the passage of Initiative 200, but tourism officials say they haven't given up. "No question, it took all the wind out of our sails," said Steve Morris, president of the Seattle-King County Convention and Visitors Bureau, about the effect of I-200 on minority conventions and meetings in the Seattle area. "Frankly, the business has been decimated." I-200, a statewide initiative passed by voters in November 1998, bans consideration of race and gender in public hiring, contracting and education.
The measure, considered an anti-affirmative action effort by many, has led minority groups to avoid Washington, as they do other states where similar measures have been passed. Morris said the impact will be felt in terms of millions of dollars of lost convention spending in the Seattle-King County area. Tourism officials say it's hard to measure the trickle-down effect on leisure travel. But convention business is important because many of those who attend meetings extend their stays, sometimes with family members.
That's especially true with African Americans, who spend $40-$50 billion annually on leisure, convention and business travel, said Roy Jay, president of African American Convention & Tourism, a national group of tourism professionals. Before I-200, Seattle and King County had been doing well when it came to attracting ethnic convention groups, Morris said. Since 1995, the area has hosted an average of 15 minority meetings annually - about 2.5 percent of 600 meetings held each year.
The ethnic groups generated an average of $9.6 million in yearly convention spending, about 1.8 percent of total revenues, according to Morris. The business peaked last year with ethnic meetings generating $13.5 million in spending. Among them was Unity '99, which drew more than 6,000 African American, Hispanic, Native American and Asian American journalists to Seattle. It was the largest minority convention held in Seattle in recent times, Morris said. With financial commitments already in place, the group choose not to cancel. But, said Morris, because of the passage of I-200, "they basically said, `Sorry, we won't be back.' " Convention groups generally book meetings several years in advance, so the real impact of I-200 will come in the future, he said.
Since the passage of I-200, there have been no major bookings by minority groups, Morris said. Only eight meetings of minority groups are expected here this year. The groups are smaller, and total spending is expected to be about $4.7 million. The biggest major cancellation in the wake of I-200 was the National Medical Association convention planned for July of next year. The group of African American physicians would have brought 3,000 to 4,000 people to Seattle and generated several million dollars in spending.
"It was a major convention that we had worked long and hard to get," Morris said. "We know that we're basically blacklisted right now," Morris said. "I think the only thing that heals the situation is time, and the shifting winds of how people tackle these social issues . . . All you can do is pick up the pieces and get on with what's bookable." Morris said the bureau will continue trying to attract minority travelers and convention groups to Seattle. The bureau maintained a separate Minority Business Development Program under director Eleanor Johnson for 10 years, but ended that contract in 1999 in favor of incorporating ethnic marketing efforts into overall convention development programs, Morris said.
It continues to publish its Multi-Ethnic Guide to Seattle-King County, a booklet with information on cultural and historic sites, arts programs, community and media resources of interest to African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans. Because of I-200, Jay says, Seattle needs to be more aggressive than ever when it comes to positioning itself as a place that welcomes minority travelers. "Seattle is in an unfortunate situation when it comes to conventions of color," said Jay. "We do not go to cities where we are not welcome."
As states such as Washington and California (which passed Proposition 209 in 1996, banning preferences based on race and gender) have lost business, other states have benefitted. Jay, the head of the African American Convention & Tourism, also runs his own company, the Oregon Convention & Visitor Services Network. He has had a contract for the past five years with the City of Portland and the Portland Oregon Visitors Association (POVA) to market the city to ethnic travelers and convention groups.
Portland is getting minority convention business, but Jay says it's because the city has been aggressive in going after it, even prior to I-200. "Up until six years ago, Portland was not on anyone's radar screen when it came to minority conventions," he said. Now it's attracting business. Jay's company receives $310,000 a year to bring ethnic travelers and convention groups to Portland, and so far, the efforts are paying off, said POVA spokeswoman Deborah Wakefield. Seven groups, including the National Association of Minority Auto Dealers and the National Indian Gaming Association, have met or will meet in Portland this year.
The combined economic impact is estimated at $3.7 million, up 34 percent over last year, according to POVA. Between 1996 and 1998, ethnic meetings represented only 1.8 percent of the total number of conventions held in Portland. This year, it's 3.3 percent. Jay, who plans to host a four-day "Diversity University" in November in Portland aimed at those working in the hospitality industry, believes that hotels, restaurants and others who cater to travelers need to step up efforts to make members of ethnic groups feel welcome.
A hotel concierge or desk clerk should be able to give a guest the names of local African American, Latino or Chinese newspapers, Jay said, or tell them where they can go for various types of ethnic food and or how to find the local black jazz station on the radio. "Hotels and airlines had to get accustomed to Asian ways in order to get that business. The hospitality industry has been a step behind when it comes to getting accustomed to the needs of minority groups who live right here," Jay said.
Lori Main, president of the Seattle Hotel Association and general manager of the WestCoast Grand Hotel on Fifth Avenue in Seattle (formerly Cavanaughs), says hotels have to walk a fine line between targeting services towards specific ethnic groups and stereotyping. "I attempt to not let our staff put our guests in boxes," she said. "What we attempt to do is make sure our staff is available to answer questions about what's happening in the city." Like most hotels, WestCoast requires its staff to go through training that includes understanding cultural differences. "The WTO (World Trade Organization) meeting here was a terrific opportunity for us to refocus our efforts," Main said. "This is an industry that welcomes the world, and needs to understand that we have to open our doors to any number of ethnic groups."
At the Sheraton Seattle Hotel, staffers receive "resumes" on groups staying at the hotel detailing the kinds of things they might want to know, or activities that might interest them. "If there was a black group or Hispanic group and there was specific information that needed to be detailed, we would detail it though that mechanism. And if it was important enough, we'd memo everybody," said Ric Nicholson, director of sales and marketing, who described the resumes as a "kind of heads-up" to everyone around.
In Washington, the Seattle-King County area was the hardest hit by I-200 because it's the only area with the facilities to attract large conventions. Nevertheless, Betsy Gabel, consumer marketing manager for Washington State Tourism, says more money spent on overall marketing of the state to ethnic travelers would pay off. Washington has a diverse population, and a reputation for welcoming people from different cultures, she said. "We don't have the real or perceived situation that Northern Idaho has (as headquarters to the Aryan Nations white supremacist group). It does, real or perceived, send a message that we don't have in Washington." But the department doesn't have the budget to do specific niche marketing, Gabel said. "It would be nice to be able to target more, because certainly there are activities and attractions in Washington state that we think would be attractive to ethnic groups."