Boycott Fails to Fully Dry Up Arizona
Washington Times, Nov. 18, 2010
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Seven months later, the effects of the boycott are coming into focus, showing that it has been a disruptive force but nowhere near as crippling as originally feared.
Businesses have lost lucrative contracts and conventions have relocated, performers have called off concerts, and cities and counties in about a dozen states passed resolutions to avoid doing business with Arizona. A report released Thursday says the boycott has cost the state $141 million in lost meeting and convention business since Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, signed the measure into law in April.
But the state’s economy hasn’t come to a screeching halt–as some who organized the boycott hoped. In fact, more people went to the Grand Canyon this summer than last year, and more stayed in Arizona’s hotels and resorts, according to a review by the Associated Press.
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Many conventions decided not to move, despite questions from their members. At the Phoenix Convention Center on Thursday, about 1,300 exhibitors, distributors and buyers were attending an annual show sponsored by the National School Supply & Equipment Association.
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Liberal groups organized the boycott to slow the state’s economy in much the same way that a boycott punished Arizona 20 years ago over its refusal to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with a holiday.
This time, groups called on people not to fly Tempe-based US Airways or rent trucks from Phoenix-based U-Haul. There was talk of fighting Major League Baseball’s plans for holding the All Star Game in Phoenix next year.
Most of those protests haven’t come to fruition. The midsummer classic is still on, a spokeswoman for US Airways said the company saw no effect from the boycott call, and a U-Haul International executive said the same thing.
“In fact, year over year, we’re up,” said Jim Pena, the Phoenix-based rental firm’s president for Arizona.
Cities that called for boycotts, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, largely found themselves with few contracts to cancel and little Arizona travel to avoid.
