STAY HOME, PLEASE The 50 states are vying for tourists put off by high prices and terrorism abroad.
By - Edward C. Baig

(FORTUNE Magazine) – CURIOSITY SEEKERS have been checking out a strange, 45-foot trailer at shopping malls around the U.S. The truck features colorful posters, stacks of brochures, and two benches where audiences watch a promotional film about the exotic delights of sun and surf in the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaii on Tour, as the trailer is called, is one of many advertising vehicles (no pun intended) concocted by the 50 states to woo tourists this year. The U.S. Travel Data Center, a travel industry group in Washington, says the states have budgeted $216 million to promote tourism in fiscal 1986, about 13% more than last year. Illinois, the nation's biggest spender, will put out $15.5 million, about two-thirds of it for a ''Happy State'' campaign that runs in newspapers and magazines and on national and local radio and TV. Hawaii, No. 9 in spending, has budgeted $6.6 million. Bringing up the rear is Iowa, which will spend a trifling $614,000 to persuade visitors to bicycle across the state or come to a new parimutuel dog track in Council Bluffs. The states are trying to capitalize on cheap gasoline prices, the low dollar, and terrorism abroad, all of which are keeping Americans close to home. ''I'm not taking personal delight in the tragedies overseas or the devastated oil industry at home,'' says Jo Luck Wilson, chief tourism booster for Arkansas. ''But I have to take advantage of the opportunity.'' The Travel Data Center estimates that tourists will spend $280 billion in the U.S. this year, about $25 billion more than last year. Says John A. Wade, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development (budget: $10.6 million), ''When people leave our state they take their memories and leave their money.'' SOME STATES pitch their own citizens hardest. California (budget: $5.9 million) is promoting 12 regional Californias -- Gold Country, the Deserts, and the Bay Area, among them -- to Californians. In a TV commercial aired in Chicago to promote ''no-noise Illinois,'' the sound of crickets is heard as the names of bucolic towns such as Savanna, Mt. Carroll, and Mendota crawl across the screen. A number of states use celebrities to lure in-state and out-of-state tourists. Bill Cosby talks up the joys of New Jersey, and Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash tout Tennessee. So-called pass-through states, such as Nebraska (''My Choice . . . Nebraska'') and Kansas (''Ah! Kansas''), try to get drivers to stay overnight by luring them to highway welcome centers. Once inside, tourists are besieged with brochures championing local attractions and lodgings and are encouraged to make toll-free reservations anywhere in the state. Corporate cheerleaders contribute to many state campaigns. Atlantic Richfield chipped in $1.3 million to finance guidebooks, maps, and billboard ads for California. Airlines and hotel chains frequently contribute to promotions for major destinations. United, American, TWA, and Eastern sponsor more than $4 million of ''I Love New York'' TV commercials. States with tiny budgets rely heavily on corporate assistance. Iowa got a local bottler to make 7-Up the ''official drink'' of the state's 1986 homecoming promotion. In Arkansas, Maybelline Co. paid for $25,000 of ads promoting the state's parks. Some states are spending to lure foreign tourists as well. Florida gives $100,000 each to Pan Am, British Air, and Eastern to underwrite ads for London-Miami routes in the United Kingdom. Virginia has arranged tours of Mercedes-Benz and Nippon Electric factories as special enticements for German and Japanese travelers. Hawaii spends more than $1 million promoting its islands in Asia and Australia. The ads presumably had little to do with Ferdinand Marcos's choice of a temporary residence.