STATEWIDE — Tourism could be the next big money maker for the state of Indiana, but there are some challenges standing in its way.
“Indiana is so much, woefully, really, under-funded when it comes to other states,” says Gerry Dick with Inside Indiana Business. Dick tells WIBC’s Tony Katz on Tony Katz Today that the tourism business in the Hoosier State does fine but has great potential if it’s given the budget it wants.
Currently the budget given to the Indiana Destination Development Corporation (IDDC) is around 4.5-million dollars, according to Dick. That’s money that goes towards promoting tourism in Indiana. He says a budget of that size puts Indiana at a disadvantage with its Midwest competition.
“The state of Michigan at 40-million [dollars], Ohio at 35-million, Illinois at 90-million that I think they’re going to spend this year,” explains Dick.
He says the IDDC is currently going through the process of drawing up a game plan to pitch to the state legislature budget writing session next year to ask for an increase in funding.
