State Rep. Todd Hunter to head travel industry caucus, focus on continuing tourism successes
AUSTIN — Texas’ travel and tourism industry is on a winning streak that lawmakers, including key members of the Coastal Bend delegation, are hoping to help continue during this session.
State Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, will chair the Texas Legislative Tourism Caucus, a bipartisan group of about two-thirds of the membership of both houses that is organizing for its fourth legislative push.
Hunter on Wednesday morning held an informal meeting of key members of the state’s travel and tourism industry in his Capitol office.
Hunter said the caucus membership should be focused on understanding the importance of tourism dollars to their respective communities.
“Our goal this session will be to get, and keep, tourism on lawmakers’ radar,” Hunter told the group that included David Teel, president and CEO of the Texas Travel and Tourism Industry Association; Ann Bracher Vaughan, executive director of the Port Aransas & Mustang Island Chamber of Commerce and Tourist Bureau; and Julie Chase, vice president of marketing and tourism for the Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Officials from Schlitterbahn Waterparks & Resorts and the Corpus Christi Convention & Visitors Bureau participated via teleconference.
Teel said that each of Texas’ 254 counties has jobs tied to travel and tourism.
Hunter said that regardless of whether a lawmaker represents a district with a billion-dollar travel industry such as Corpus Christi, or a lawmaker comes from an area with little more than a few biking or hiking trails, all of them have a stake.
“I think we forget that travel and tourism is about families,” Hunter said.
Travel spending in Texas topped $63 billion in 2011, the second straight year of gains, based on the latest data available from the governor’s office on economic development and tourism.
State tourism officials in 2011 used tourism’s dollar-generating and job-creating power — about a half-million jobs are directly tied to tourism — to sway lawmakers from making huge cuts to the state’s travel and tourism marketing budget as part of a general push for less spending created by enormous budget shortages.
Instead, lawmakers cut Texas Parks & Wildlife funding, lopping off about $150 million — 20 percent — from the department’s budget for 2012-13.
Because the comptroller’s revenue estimate for the 2014-15 fiscal years is expected to reach $96 billion, the focus for many state-backed industry groups will be to maintain what they have, Hunter said.
He said the first caucus meeting tentatively is set for the end of January. Membership is expected to include all members from the Coastal Bend delegation, including state Sen. Glenn Hegar Jr., R-Katy, and those from other tourism-rich areas such as state Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston; Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville; and state Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D-Harlingen.
Corpus Christi Caller Times By Rick Spruill
