The hubris of the bill's sponsor (a builder of elegant multi-million homes by trade) however, is laughable: “Tourism is valuable. I get that. But tourism is also alive and well," he said after a hearing in which the measure was properly toasted last month. 

As someone who is on the road roughly half the year, working with our Destination Marketing clients across the Americas, I have the simple solution to the shame people are feeling.

“Defeated and exhausted, I started to trudge out of the lounge around midnight. That's when a Delta employee asked for my boarding pass. ‘Where are you headed?’ she asked. ‘Columbus,’ I said. ‘No, where are you supposed to be going?’ she responded.

There is a Catch-22 here: residents need houses in order to rebuild and restart the economy, but they can’t restart the economy without tourists. And tourists require services, which require workers, who require housing.

Inexperience in marketing is actually a good thing...because the best Boards aren't subject experts. They are influencers. They are liaisons with the community they serve. They are advocates and activists.

Hey Venice? You really want to try and make a dent by taxing tourists? Try adding another zero.

On the surface, it's hard not to agree with the founding premise of Americans for Tax Reform. But when they utilize extremely fuzzy math to back their positions, it's a WTF moment.