R.I. support of Newport ferry will increase tourist spending

To the editor:
There was a tinge of irony to your recent editorial (“R.I. tourism on par with the world’s best,” Jan. 26). The irony is this: The Providence-Newport ferry service has ended. The one summertime connection for tourists between Providence and Newport is unfunded, despite the fact that the ferry carried an annual average of 46,000 tourists in the three years it operated from Conley’s Wharf on the Allens Avenue waterfront.
The ferry failed because the state refused to subsidize it in the amount of approximately $450,000. Given the multiplier effect of tourist dollars, especially in Newport, our political leaders have been pennywise and pound foolish. What better stimulus to tourism than the Providence-Newport ferry?
PATRICK T. CONLEY
Conley’s Wharf owner