If there was a message coming out of last week’s rally in Indian Spring Park championing tourism and travel, we got it, and we hope you did too: All of us need to do a better job of talking up the sights and experiences that a visit to Waco can offer.

The message is probably more critical now than ever, especially with gasoline prices and a listless economy forcing folks nationwide to think more judiciously on how they are going to spend their vacations dollars. Indeed, local travel numbers for Waco are good — to the tune of $406 million in economic impact — but they were better a few years ago before the economy took a holiday.

Nor can help be expected from the state, which this year is spending $29 million marketing tourism. That funding drops to $1.5 million next year and another $1.5 million the year after that in budgets proposed in the Texas Legislature. We can’t really argue with such drops — not when teachers are being laid off and nursing homes may be shuttered because of other state cuts — but it obviously raises the stakes for cities in Texas that want to raise their profile.

What we can do is ensure that we each have at our command an ability to sell the Waco area to prospective or first-time visitors. That means having a mental list of local sights ready for anyone who might ask. With such attractions as the Cameron Park Zoo, Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, Waco Mammoth Site and Texas Sports Hall of Fame, the last thing we need to do, when asked about attractions, is go slack-jawed.

We’re happy to second the notion that local governments should do more to tout our area, though some already do their fair share, including the city of Waco on its website, in brochures and on TV broadcasts.

We also like the idea of local hotel and motel proprietors getting more involved in the mix. They can start by training their hired help to be able to recite the multitude of things to do and see while in the Waco area.

All that said, it’s pretty hard to fault others when McLennan County commissioners aren’t willing to show leadership and raise funds to attract a convention of their peers to Waco in 2013. Precisely because they aren’t willing, that convention will go to some other city where the commissioners were willing to step up, engage and fundraise.

We wonder now if our commissioners would even have the gall to show up at that convention of their peers, wherever it lands in 2013. They would have to acknowledge that, sadly, the commissioners of the host town were willing to hustle to bring others to their city and county.