You may remember that the NAACP recently issued a travel advisory, cautioning black people about traveling to Missouri.

Rod Chapel, head of Missouri's NAACP chapter urged for the advisory to move forward after state legislation (Senate Bill 43) made it harder for employees to make workplace discrimination cases.

Well, according to the head of the city’s tourism and convention agency, this advisory is costing St. Louis some serious coin.

Hotels, in particular, have notably lost business in the last month.

"We have been notified by a number of area hotels that they have lost meeting groups that were in contract phase," said Explore St. Louis president Kathleen "Kitty" Ratcliffe in a statement to STL Today. "We've also been working with a number of organizations that are already contracted to help them address any concerns that they have had expressed from their attendees."

Exact dollar amounts lost unfortunately aren’t known since Explore St. Louis didn’t have permission to provide specific details.

Ratcliffe continued in her statement, "We fully respect the rights of any organization to share their concerns with SB 43 or any other piece of legislation. However, we are discouraged that the travel industry is being used as a weapon against politicians for their policies. Ultimately, it is not the politicians who suffer from these actions, but it is the hard working men and women of our state's hospitality industry that will bear the impact and outcome."

Missouri Chamber of Commerce CEO, Daniel P. Mehan also made his concern known, noting, "It is concerning that the travel advisory is partially based on legislation that does not have anything to do with travel. A piece of employment law legislation, which aligns Missouri law with federal standards, should not cause anyone to be concerned about traveling to Missouri. Employment law standards in the majority of other states are similar or even stricter than Missouri’s new law."

St. Louis County NAACP Esther Haywood has similar sentiments to Mehan suggesting that if the NAACP doesn’t lift the travel advisory to at least add the same advisory to the 38 other states that have similar workplace laws.   

The advisory expires on August 28, which is also the day that the Senate Bill 43 law goes into effect.