Sharper Point: The 22 billion reasons we need to be really nice to tourists

Be nice to the tourists! 

I don’t care how slow they drive or how rude they may be. I don’t care if they ask 10 irritating questions in a row with a barely decipherable accent or if it appears that they can’t count American money. Please be nice to the tourists. 

The job you save may be your own.

But if you don’t believe me, just check out these 2017 numbers from the  Arizona Office of Tourism: 

• Almost 44 million people visited – and spent at least one night in – our state. 

• They spent more than $22 billion (yes, billion with a “B”). 

• That works out to $62 million per day! 

• (Tourism officials did more math and) that works out to $43,000 per minute! 

If you were to take 43,000 one-dollar bills and stretch them eastward, end-to-end, starting at the Grand Canyon (because that’s what people do), you would end up right back at the Grand Canyon – and have enough spare dollar bills to get you to the historic Cameron Trading Post on the Navajo Nation. 

If you were able to get the time off work to lay dollar bills around the globe, you’d also run into many of the people who are dying to come visit here: Foreign tourists. 

Having grown up in northern Arizona, I ran into tons of foreign tourists as a kid. Every year, about 3 million tourists visit Page, Arizona (population 7,247). Almost half of those tourists were from foreign countries. 

It was kind of a cool way to grow up, because I met people from everywhere without ever leaving my hometown. 

Admittedly, it didn’t hurt having a mom who didn’t consider anyone a stranger because we had people in our house from New Zealand, Germany and Japan to name just a few of the far-off places. 

And while my mom could definitely be highly embarrassing at times, a certain 15-year-old boy was more than willing – at least once – to look past the embarrassment (because of a certain very cute 16-year-old English girl). 

But I have to admit that plenty of tourists also drove me absolutely crazy. In a bad way – not a hot-girl way. 

It’s why I have to make a conscious choice sometimes to employ my mom’s attitude toward tourists – even if, from time-to-time, I have to project that positive attitude from behind gritted teeth. 

We all have 22 billion ($) reasons to do so.  Oh! And did I mention? The tourism office says visitor spending supported 187,000 jobs in Arizona.

So let’s practice together: with a big smile on your face, look in the mirror and say, “Howdy, Ma’am! Why, there’s  exactly 1.60934 kilometers in a mile. Have a nice day!” 

Follow @JimSharpe