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Immigration law costs Arizona hotels a bundle
The cost of closing down the borders may be higher than you think. At least, that's what the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association is saying. Tourists have cut back their visits to the state, the association believes, because of the recent controversial immigration law. Tourism and travel companies claim they've lost millions of dollars because of how the state is being perceived. According to ABC 15 in Arizona:
"I think any time there's something controversial that would even cause a group to think there's something negative it's an easy choice when you have so many other destinations to choose from," said Debbie Johnson, President and CEO of the association.
Of course, there are claims that the economy – not immigration laws – is responsible for the drop in Arizona tourism business, and to a certain extent, this is true. Some hotels have sustained 40 percent drops in call activity, and hotels are saying that some groups are backing out of tentative bookings because of the immigration law.
[photo by Fibonacci Blue via Flickr]
Filed under: Business, North America, United States, Hotels and Accommodations, Consumer Activism
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Hotelmine Oct 1st 2010 3:52PM
Mexico’s drug wars, not immigration law, costing Arizona hotels a bundle
Their assertion made by the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association couldn’t be further from the truth because it’s not Arizona’s immigration law that has prospective tourists making other plans. It’s the violence spilling into the U.S. from Mexico’s drug wars that are to blame.
According to a Los Angeles Times article, ”Mexico Under Seige“, more than 28,000 Mexican citizens have died in drug-related violence in Mexico since the start of 2007, shortly after Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared war on drug traffickers. That’s more than the U.S. fatalities in the Iraq war. There have been 45,000 Mexican troops and 5,000 federal police deployed to 18 states where trafficking groups are fighting local authorities and battling for access to the U.S. market.
Illegal immigration and drug smuggling have always been issues in this border state, but warring Mexican cartels are carrying violence to levels that have shocked law enforcement and government officials. Arizona State Senator Jonathan Paton told the AFP that “It’s definitely being ramped up beyond anything we’ve ever seen before” and Senator John McCain asserts that this sort of violence is “a threat to our national security.”
Last week Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer filed an appeal to a judge’s ruling in favor of a Department of Justice petition to stop an Arizona immigration law that would have allowed state and local police to request visa papers from individuals stopped for questioning on other matters.
Nearly a dozen states filed a legal brief Friday in support of that law, arguing that the judge erred in ruling that the law interferes with the executive branch’s immigration enforcement priorities.