WILDWOOD — Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells was the recipient of a warm welcome at the Wildwoods Convention Center Oct. 15.

“You know that new Wildwood sign on the boardwalk? We erected that for you,” joked Norris Clark, director of sales and marketing for Morey’s Piers and political candidate in this year’s election.

“We normally don’t get people from Trenton down here,” added Woody Woodland of the Cape May Jazz Festival.

Officials from the New Jersey Department of State and the Division of Travel and Tourism at-tended the forum to open a dialogue between the state and those on the front lines of the tourism industry.

But amid the smiles and words of welcome, those manning the front lines of the state’s $38-billion tourism industry questioned Wells on the state’s seeming lack of support.

Last year, state tourism funding was cut to $10.10 million from the minimum of $12.76 million required under law. Under the governor’s proposed 2008 budget, funding will remain flat.

“A nearly $40-billion industry can’t have its budget cut,” said John Siciliano, executive director of the Greater Wildwoods Tourism Improvement and Development Authority (GWTIDA). “It needs to grow.”

Clark said that many in the tourism industry believe that the state has added insult to injury.

“The insult is that once we get visitors, we have to put them into hotels that have a 14-percent occupancy tax. The injury is that now our tourism funding is cut,” he said.

“Politically what is more likely to happen?” he asked. “Will we see low occupancy tax or greater funding?”

Wells told a room of about 100 tourism professionals that she was going to take all comments under advisement, but she wasn’t going to respond directly to any budget questions.

“Certainly we have many fiscal challenges,” she said, but explained that New Jersey certainly isn’t unique when it comes to money complaints.

“Almost every state is in the same boat,” she said.

She suggested that everyone has to do what they need to in order to get “a real bang out of every single buck.”

Wells noted that technology, specifically being able to book everything from a hotel room to an entire vacation itinerary, was essential. She also explained that fostering partnerships would only enhance a visitor’s experience.

“That will really emphasize southern New Jersey as a destination,” she said.
Cape May County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Vickie Clark told Wells the county deals with a lot of government agencies, such as the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Department of Transportation (DOT).

“We would welcome an advocate from tourism to be a liaison to the other agencies,” said Clark. “So when the DEP wants campground owners to sit outside of bathhouses to count toilet flushes in order to calculate optimum usage, we’ll have someone there to help explain our position.”

Wells said that was an “absolutely wonderful suggestion” and she would work on connections between tourism and the state agencies.
Contact Suit at: (609) 886-8600 ext. 25 or lsuit@cmcherald.com

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