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We Iowans always have been desperate for approval. So when the Iowa Department of Economic Development’s Iowa Tourism Office reported a strong gain in tourist spending in 2007, our first reaction was something like: “They like us. They really like us.”

According to the report, the economic impact of tourism in Iowa increased $500 million compared with 2006, totaling $6.3 billion. Tourism-generated expenditures increased 7.6 percent, well ahead of the 5.7 percent average increase nationally.

This is good, no question about it. But when the champagne wears off, one starts to wonder if throngs of people are really pouring into Iowa to see covered bridges and ride on the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad. It might be more likely that Iowans chose to take short trips rather than long ones as gasoline prices jumped.

It’s still a positive thing. It’s still economic stimulation. But there’s a huge difference between economic activities that circulate money within a closed system and those that bring in a fresh supply.

It’s not Las Vegas residents who have made Las Vegas wealthy. It’s all of those visitors from Boise and Wichita and Des Moines. Now there’s a great model for bringing in outside dollars – unless you’re opposed to preying on human weakness, which you should be.

Here in modest Iowa, we are making modest progress. People will come thousands of miles to attend the World Food Prize events or run in a well-organized marathon or compete in an Olympic qualifier triathlon, but those are always going to be relatively small numbers.

They’ll come hundreds of miles to attend the World Pork Expo or play our top golf courses or attend a race at the Iowa Speedway.

We may never find out how many would come to an Earthpark.

But let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that nice state parks are major tourist destinations. Somebody needs to come up with the next big idea. Or two.