Arizona tourism already feeling burn of immigration boycott

In Arizona, tourism is already taking a hit.

The recently passed law that allows local police to question individuals about their immigration status if the cops believe they are not in the country legally has caused a chain reaction of boycotts, canceled hotel reservations and nixed business trips.

San Francisco and St. Paul have banned public employees from traveling to Arizona on business. Los Angeles, San Diego and Oakland are considering similar actions.

"We don't want to hurt Arizona, but we don't want this kind of law to continue," said Oakland City Council President Jane Brunner.

Opponents are looking to sink Phoenix's bid for the next Republican National Convention and Major League Baseball's 2011 All-Star Game, according to KJZZ radio.

In 2009, Arizona hosted more than 37 million domestic and international visitors, who spent approximately $18.5 billion and generated an estimated $1.4 billion in local and state tax revenues, according to the Asian American Hotel Owners Association.

“A boycott of Arizona will harm the lodging industry and the employees who depend on traveling guests for their next paychecks, but it will not solve any immigration problems,” said AAHOA Chairman Tarun Patel.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed the immigration bill into law, said these boycotts are hurting real Americans who just want to make Arizona a safer place to live.

"Why would they want to hurt the legal citizens?" Brewer said. "You and I, and everybody else in this state. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever to me."

Arizona is still suffering high unemployment numbers - around 10% - from the recession. Now it seems like prosperity is far from being around the corner.

Ben Bethel, owner of the boutique Clarendon Hotel in Phoenix, told KJZZ that customers canceled 80 room reservations - about $8,000 worth of business - in just one day last week.

"We were so hopeful that things were recovering," he said, "but this is a situation where it's actually going to be very difficult to recover from this."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/05/04/2010-05-04_arizona_tourism_already_feeling_burn_of_immigration_boycott_burn.html#ixzz0n00JtNne