“The Picasso show at SAM last year generated $66 million for Seattle; half the museum-goers were from out of town,” writes Ronald Holden at Cornichon, in a post in defense of Seattle tourism marketing.

But last July Washington State made the New York Times for closing down its tourism office, becoming “the only state in the nation with no statewide tourism office and no state money to promote itself to travelers.”

“Tourism is the fourth-largest industry in Washington,” noted the Times.

When the state tourism office was shut down, its budget was $1.8 million against the $50 million budgeted by British Columbia or California. California expects to have made some $104 billion from tourists during 2011, which seems a reasonable return.

In 2010, tourists spent an estimated $15 billion in Washington State, resulting in almost $1 billion in additional tax revenue. That Seattle is a draw will surprise no one, but Washington State is large and offers a multitude of get-away-from-it-all excursions, from its coast to Eastern Washington wineries to the Columbia River.

The state’s tourism office, when it still existed, found that travel and tourism had significant impacts in rural areas:

In 2009, the six counties with more than 10 percent travel-generated jobs were all non-urban. Further, the 14 counties with more than six percent travel-generated jobs were also non-urban. Travel spending generates more than 15 percent of local sales and lodging taxes in eight counties, all of which are non-urban.

Ironically, the tourism office’s reward for success was falling under the budget axe. Though their budget was slashed the last few years, tourism dollars appeared relatively unaffected–at least from a tax-revenue viewpoint. It appears that a majority of legislators did not ask themselves if adding funding for tourism, the state’s fourth largest industry, remember, was an obvious way to increase revenue. They may not have eaten the goose that laid the golden eggs, but they seem to think that starving it is an ace idea.

While keeping in mind that steady increase in tourism dollars charted above, you also want to keep in mind how hard it is to maintain top-of-mind awareness. Treading water isn’t attention-getting. There’s an easy (if unscientific) way to get a glimpse of what people are interested in, and it’s free: Google Trends. So take a look at the results for “Seattle” and “Washington State.” The last eight years show an unbroken decline in search volume. (Not true of Amazon or Nordstrom or Starbucks, but true of Microsoft and Boeing as well.)

This story is something to keep in mind when you hear howling from the State Capitol about our dire economic situation. Many budgeting issues are complex, but this one is not. If your attempts to fix a decline in tax revenue involve, short-term, defunding offices that have been providing increases in tax revenue, you are doing it wrong. The sooner the Governor and Legislature stop working against our state’s fourth largest industry, the better.