FARGO (KFGO) - The President and CEO of the Fargo-Moorhead Convention & Visitors Bureau is criticizing a plan to cut the North Dakota Tourism Department's budget.
State lawmakers are considering a proposal to eliminate up to $3.2 million over the next biennium. But F-M CVB President Charley Johnson says the cuts would actually cost the state money in the long term.
“It’s proven that every dollar the state spends on tourism marketing, in whatever form it takes, brings back far more return than virtually any other dollar they could spend” Johnson said. “I think it’s very short-sighted for the state to cut.”
“I would like them to reconsider the cuts” Johnson said. “The state will get (the money) back. I get the fact that everything has to pay the piper when budgets get cut, but we’re taking about the one thing that brings people into the state on a regular basis”
Johnson says tourism is the third-largest industry in North Dakota, behind agriculture and oil.