WASHINGTON, DC - The lucrative convention and conference business is the backbone of Arizona’s tourism industry and it has been significantly hurt by the state’s enactment in April of harsh anti-immigration legislation.

The industry’s losses will cost the state $253 million in economic output and more than $86 million in lost wages over the next two to three years, according to a report commissioned by the Center for American Progress.

The study, conducted by Arizona-based Elliott D. Pollack & Company, found that the losses from meetings that were cancelled following approval of the immigration control law S.B. 1070 total $141 million in direct spending by convention attendees. Further, the economic hit from cancelled meetings that would have occurred over the next two to three years—$253 million in economic output—affects 2,800 jobs that would have been supported by that activity.

Arizona’s anti-immigration policies have come at a time when the state’s economy can least afford it. Other high tourism states—Florida, Texas, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, to name a few—should heed this report’s warnings before jumping on Arizona’s derailed economic train.

“Citizens in other states must remain on high alert as politicians begin to talk about moving Arizona-like measures, especially in these fragile economic times,” said Angela M. Kelley, CAP’s Vice President for Immigration Policy and Advocacy. “Clearly, the numbers show the economic train wreck that happens under this anti-immigrant strategy waged by politicians who pander to hyperbolic fears of immigrants. Taxpayers are the ones who will have to dig deeper in their pockets to make up for local budget shortfalls created by empty convention spaces,” Kelley added.

Arizona’s enactment of S.B. 1070 during a sluggish economic period also damaged the state’s high-dollar commerce with Mexico, said Lea Marquez-Peterson, president and CEO of the ...