By Deborah Hopkins, San Juan Islands Visitors Bureau
May 7-15 is National Travel & Tourism Week. To celebrate, the San Juan Islands Visitors Bureau is promoting Washington State Tourism’s campaign “Share Your Washington” – asking each Island resident to invite their friends and family to visit Washington and the San Juan Islands this year.
If we all get one person to visit Washington State, we can help create 20,000 jobs!
The Visitors Bureau website’s home page, and a special landing page, visitsanjuans.com/shareyourwashington, lead viewers to the State’s webpage at www.shareyourwashington.com, where Island residents can view a fun video explaining the campaign, and then send a San Juan Islands postcard to friends and family.
Each time a postcard is sent, the sender is entered into a contest to win tickets on Alaska Airlines. Specials and packages from around the state, including the San Juan Islands, are then e-mailed to both the sender and receiver of the postcard.
Tourism is economic development. Visitors spent $116.5 million in San Juan County in 2009, the latest data available from Washington State Tourism. Travelers spent $15.2 billion in Washington State in 2010 and tourism is Washington State’s fourth largest export-oriented industry, following aerospace, software and agriculture/food.
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