Boycotts Taking Toll on Arizona

Fewer visitors are heading to Arizona, but not the way state lawmakers envisioned when they crafted their controversial immigration law. Arizona businesses, especially those in the tourism and hospitality trades, are starting to feel the pain of boycotts launched to protest the law. So many conventions have been canceled that the state's hotel association has lost track, and Mexican cross-border shoppers are getting scarce in Nogales.

"The phone is not ringing," a spokeswoman for Arizona's hotel association tells the Christian Science Monitor, predicting that the industry will lose $90 million over the next 5 years. The boycotts, she complains, are hurting the wrong people. “Our hope is that people can separate tourism from the politicians,” she says. Supporters of the law, meanwhile, plan huge rallies this weekend and a "buy-cott" to counteract the effects of boycotts, the Arizona Republic reports.
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