Most of what has been said is correct, but I would take this the other way from our personal experience. We were from Idaho, and as such, there just isn't that much baseball talent. It's getting better, but nowhere near CA, TX, FL, GA, etc., and it never will be.
Ryan's travel coach put together a group of elite IDAHO kids. Why? Because in order for the kids to find out if they were good enough, they needed to travel and compete against neighboring states. The boys traveled to Utah quite a bit, and initially, they competed some, struggled some, etc. Eventually, the boys learned what the real competition was, and there is a lot of value in that. If they had continued to play just in Idaho, they would have never learned that they needed to seriously step their game up. Utah had quite a few good players, and it took the boys awhile before they started winning some tourneys there. Later, they went to Las Vegas, Phoenix, etc., and they were prepared for the tall task at hand. They knew that they had to work hard to get better, or they would not be able to compete.