I try to attend the Annual San Diego Tourism Authority (SDTA) Workshop
workshop about every five years to see how this powerful group evaluate and
increases its goals to bring tourist to our region. In general the SDTA is SD City
centric, but their remit is the whole of the county. The San Diego Tourism Authority is a
private, non-profit, mutual benefit corporation composed of approximately 1,000
member organizations, businesses, local governments, and individuals. Members
include lodging, dining, arts & attractions, shopping, and transportation
i.e. any company even indirectly involved in tourism. It is funded in part by
members and the San Diego Tourism Marketing District (City
of SD Lodgings) with City of San Diego Tourism
Marketing.(City of SD Economic Development) assessment funds.
Tourism is the second largest
segment of San Diego's
economy and employs approximately 180,900 people. SDTA invests $25 million dollars in
advertising and promotional programs. Tourists spend $9.9 million and the TOT (Tax
on Tourist) raises $246 million of which $180 million in SD City Only. Tourism
as revenue is second only to Research/Technology/Innovation in our region. This
is another good reason to combine both in STEAM (Science Technology,
Engineering, Arts, Math) education.
With 80 on staff a
large part of their business is bringing large meetings and conventions into
our centers and hotels. They do this by showing perspective decision makers,
how fabulous the area is climate, hotels, restaurants and especially
attractions like Sea World and
the SD Zoo
not to forget the 85 art institutions. A terrific program is called Kids Free in October.
Over 40 museums are allowing kids 12 or under in for free with a paid adult for
the whole month.
The Brand they are
promoting is San Diego Owns a Sunny Outlook and The People + The Place + The Climate = Inspired Optimism. SDTA’s stance is that San
Diego is different from LA because we are authentic
and collaborative. Climate is important but also the people and the natural and
built environment. What is surprising is that it is the we rate 5th
in the county for programming which is a big part supplied by the arts.
They very cleverly are
starting an award program for hotel (Rancho Bernardo Inn) and sales person
(Rachel Strong) who performs outstanding services for the quarter, sort of an
Art Prize for Tourism.
The
media breakout was cancelled but the B2B (Business to Business) Social
Marketing panel was interesting thanks to industry panelists including special
guests Tyler Anderson, and Stephanie Liu
well versed on facebook, Instagram, twitter, and SDTA's Ernie Rossow, National Sales Director and Nick Karvounis, B2B Content Editor. Introductions for all the
presenters below were made by Dave Mering. We were also treated to this video of
him seeing all three attractions which was a real hoot. Here are a few tips I
picked up:
- In postings, be yourself, have fun, tell your story and your history
- Drill down on your hash tags, from the large audience to the individual interest
- Use video to go behind the scene for more interest
- If you use paid ads on facebook, make sure your placement is not on the side rail but in the Newsfeed
- Reach out for
additional curated posted from others on topic
It was interesting to see that the attractions
are all taking on cause marketing. Legoland Empowers Children. The Zoo save
endangered species and Sea World is in the middle of re-inventing itself as an
educational institution concentrating on the oceans.
Here are links to the
presentations followed by links to the info they gave us on flash drives for
anyone who wants to dive deeper.
- San Diego Tourism Authority, Kerri Kapich
- Port of San Diego, Karen Porteous – great new resort projects in both National City and Chula Vista will be considered outside public living rooms. The bridge lights on Coronado Bridge are back on track.
- San Diego Airport, Thella
Bowens - yes, Terminal
1 is being upgraded and then replace entirely for $1.5 billion. She also
acknowledged how much the art de-stresses the travel experience.
* Airport Presentation
* Thella's Notes - San Diego Zoo, Ted Molter - The new Watering Hole at the Safari park will be promoted for weddings and parties. Africa Rocks is a brand new display.
- SeaWorld San Diego, Barbara Drahl
- Legoland, Peter Kock, director of marketing - The last time I visited, Logoland was rather small and seemed a joy only for 5 year olds. They have added attractions every year like Star Wars coming 2017 and now have a hotel like a proper resort and are building another hotel and expanding parking. I was impressed that one of the three attractions presented was in Carlsbad.
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