Just trust us

Guns-in-bars law hurts tourism, cities say.

Now, the leaders of the Nashville and Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureaus are saying the law has hurt local tourism efforts, claiming that other cities are using the guns-in-bars measure to lure visitors away from Tennessee.
“It’s probably the single biggest issue people write and talk about when they’re considering coming here,” said Butch Spyridon, CEO of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau.
“We had international press, and we have gotten letters from visitors who literally have canceled plans to visit.”

Oh, wow, that sucks. Well, it was only legal for 140 days, so surely we have some hard numbers. You know, a graph or something that shows on June 30 we had X vistors, but from July 1 to November 20, we had .25X visitors or somesuch, then on November 21 it went back up to X visitors. Right?
And you called those visitors who cancelled their plans after Bonnyman made her decision, didn’t you? I mean, your job is to get people to come to Nashville, so I’m sure you did that. By the way, did they mention where they went instead? It would be interesting to see if they went somewhere that allows guns in bars, like Florida, Massachussetts, Texas, etc.

What’s more, Sypridon said competing cities have used the new guns law against Nashville in trying to attract conventions.
“As the economy (took a turn) other cities and hotels used a lot of different tactics, negative sales tactics,” Spyridon said. “Without question some cities, some hotels, will utilize whatever tactics are at their disposal.”

Okay, so we know this happened, right? I mean, that’s what you guys are saying, isn’t it? If restaurant carry was “the single biggest issue people write and talk about when they’re considering coming here” and “competing cities have used the new guns law against Nashville in trying to attract conventions,” then you’ve got a couple of examples of conventions citing this as a reason they chose another city. Heck, you’ve already said you had letters from people cancelling vacation plans.

Spyridon and Kane declined to point to specific examples…

Of course they did! I mean, we should just trust them, right? These are the same people that say we need a billion dollar convention center in downtown Nashville to attract conventions.
I’m gonna go ahead and say it: They’re lying.
If this was such a big concern, and the SOLE reason that conventions aren’t choosing Tennessee cities, then Las Vegas wouldn’t have any conventions either.
Nevada allows guns in places that serve alcohol.
Go blame something else for you sucking at your job.