Good news for Arizona travel and tourism from all fronts. For starters, the controversial part of the immigration law (SB1070) has been blocked by a judge. Second, the Arizona lawmaker who triggered the travel boycotts is now calling on conventions to come back to his state.

Stop AZ Boycotts

In response to a lawsuit filed by the federal government against SB1070, US District Judge Susan Bolton ordered a temporary injunction on provisions in the law which would have forced immigrants to carry their papers, and allowed officers to make warrantless arrests of suspected illegals.

SB1070 goes into effect on July 29, 2010, but the legal fight will now wind its way through the courts all the way to the US Supreme Court. Until then, assuming no court lifts the injunction, consider the whole SB1070 issue moot.

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) took this legal victory as an opportunity to rescind his call for a boycott of Arizona by out-of-state conventioneers. In a statement, he said “I am encouraging national groups to return their conventions and conferences to the state to help us change the political and economic climate.”

Grijalva was the first one to call for an Arizona boycott, and it triggered off a tsumani of travel boycotts from organizations, private businesses, and entire cities. Now that SB1070 is stuck in the courts and Grijalva is calling for the conventions to come back to Arizona, it offers cover for everyone who would like to call off their boycotts.

To be noted that Debbie Johnson, CEO of the Arizona Hotel & Lodging Association, along with other members of Arizona’s travel industry, might have helped nudge Rep. Grijalva in the right direction.

At the Governor’s Conference on Tourism held earlier this month in Tucson, there was a presentation about How the Immigration Debate and Boycotts are Affecting AZ Tourism. The presentation explicitly singled out Rep. Raul Grijalva for blame. Debbie Johnson also urged attendees to vote against politicans who supported the boycotts.

Ruth McClung, a rocket scientist from Tucson, is running against Grijalva in the upcoming November elections, and she too attended the tourism conference in Tucson. McClung has a novel campaign slogan -  ”Boycott Grijalva, not Arizona!”

To upp the pressure some more, they even sent Grijalva multiple letters about his boycott call and demanded an apology. Grijalva ignored the letters, and has not apologized as yet. 

To combat the boycotts, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has set up a tourism taskforce with a budget of $250,000. The task force has come up with some recommendations for improving the AZ tourism brand.

Also, organizations in Phoenix have set up a website (www.stopazboycotts.com/) which spotlights ordinary people (waitresses, cab drivers, etc.) who depend on tourism and have been adversely affected by the boycotts. The hope is that putting a face to the boycott will help people realize the damage being causing to innocents.

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