The debate over how to spend Tennessee tax-dollars next year officially began Monday. State departments are making their pitches for more funding, while also showing what they would do if forced to cut their budgets by 3.5 percent.
The Department of Tourist Development wants another million dollars to advertise the newly organized Tennessee Music Pathway. Assistant commissioner Brian Wagner made the case at a budget hearing.
“The louder our trumpet, the more we’re going to be able to get people to come and experience these things,” Wagner told Governor Bill Haslam.
A big boost in funding last year allowed the state to place ads in Dallas and Chicago. Tennessee tourism officials say they’d like more money in order to enter the country’s most expensive media markets, like New York and Los Angeles.
The marketing has had some payoff. Travel spending in Tennessee has been on a steady increase since 2010, growing from $13.3 billion to $17.7 billion in 2014, though it’s concentrated primarily in the four largest cities and the Smoky Mountains.
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