Tourism is good for the city, no doubt. 

Those one million plus tourists strolling down King Street with their ice cream cones and tourist tschojke hauls in about $14 million per year to the tax base.

Forget we have jacked up the meals tax and the hotel tax and the parking and the towing.  Naive tourists and meeting attendees might not notice, and certainly the tax dollars going to a well-planned, executed, coordinated and tracked marketing campaign by the Alexandria Convention and Visitors Association is a good expenditure.  

But is that the case?  

ACVA is spending about $480 per reservation. Do the math: $150,000 for 350 reservations so far.   

Instead, one or two hotels booking one or two groups could generate more room nights than that, and if ACVA had to kick in a thousand or two to cut the cost to the group (or host a reception for them) we would all come out ahead.  

New York has always been a top feeder market, but with the cost of gas ACVA should look at Philadelphia.  Look at promotions with Amtrak.  Look at promotions with the Chinese buses; they stop in Rosslyn, get them to come here.  

Lest we forget, the city doesn't like buses.   

And the statement that the VISA $25 card will be paid for by Travelocity commissions seems overly optimistic.  

Using Travelocity from the ACVA Web site is a little confusing, and it
lets you book travel to places other than Alexandria.  

Why should we pay for people to go someplace else?