Boycotts Will Have Little Effect on Arizona

Don Surber does a little math and shows us that the reported impact on Arizona's travel industry as reported by the press won't make that much difference:

The unreported statistic of the day is $18 billion.

From the Washington Post: “The city [Phoenix] risks losing as much as $90 million in hotel and convention business over the next five years because of the controversy, according to city estimates released Wednesday. The state’s hotel and lodging association has counted 23 canceled meetings for a loss of between $6 and $10 million. On Wednesday, Los Angeles became the largest city to join the boycott.”

So let us see, $90 million divided by 5 is $18 million, plus $10 million (I’ll make that an annual loss as well)… Surber Math pegs that as a $28 million loss for the state’s travel industry.

The state’s $18 billion-a-year travel industry.

So $28 million is a loss of less than 0.0015% in business… using Surber Math.

That $18 billion figure was not included in the story.

It should have been.

And there's something else to think about. The stories that suggest big damage to Arizona tend to be written by people who agree with the boycotts and therefore think others are of like mind. What about the effect of people who may be MORE inclined to vacation in Arizona now that this law has passed? I doubt that will be an insignificant number and may well offset the losses from the morally superior liberals.

And those vacationers will be looking for reasons to spend their money in Arizona, so on a per capita basis, may contribute much more than those who are boycotting may have had they climbed down off their high horse and taken their trip.