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Timothy Stene - Summer vacationers enjoy the bike path along Cabrillo yesterday afternoon.

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Officials remain upbeat about tourism industry

By ERIC LINDBERG — Aug. 21, 2009

Although mindful of the poor economic climate of late and its resulting impacts on the local tourism trade, business and tourism officials appeared upbeat about the future of one of Santa Barbara’s largest economic engines.

Sales and bed taxes had double-digit slumps in the early months of this summer compared to last year, but organizers with the Santa Barbara Convention and Visitor’s Bureau & Film Commission urged local businesses to prepare for the inevitable economic upswing.

“I know we’re all facing unprecedented times, but as we look around there is a great deal to be grateful for,” said Kathy Janega-Dykes, president and CEO of the organization. She added later, “The financial picture is improving and forecasters agree that the economy is stabilizing.”

During the bureau’s annual marketing meeting yesterday, tourism officials placed a heavy emphasis on responding positively to the ongoing shift in communication and offered a few tips on how to tap into the “social media” phenomenon.

Janega-Dykes said her organization would be using new media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to support and supplement traditional marketing efforts.

“Much of the plan focuses on the use of technology,” she said.

Strategies to spread a positive message about Santa Barbara range from placing messages on coffee jackets in Los Angeles area hangouts to updating the bureau’s website to draw in more visitors. The organization is working with Universal Studios to promote “It’s Complicated,” a film starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin that was partly shot in Santa Barbara.

Officials also hope to continue to attract international visitors, as they make up 17 percent of the local tourism industry.

“If you were walking downtown this summer, you heard a lot of different languages being spoken,” Janega-Dykes said.

And despite some promising signs on the economic front, Tom Patton, incoming chairman of the bureau’s board of directors, said businesses can’t wait on the sidelines for the economy to return to full strength. He pushed for a proposed $2 assessment on hotel rooms to bring in more money for marketing purposes, asking businesses and hotels to get on board with the plan.

“You can market your hotel all you want, but if visitors aren’t coming to Santa Barbara, they won’t be sleeping in your beds,” he said.

While certainly critical to the businesses that rely on out-of-town visitors to stay afloat, the tourism industry is also an important source of revenue for the city of Santa Barbara, which relies on sales and bed taxes to provide basic services such as police, fire and streets maintenance.

City Councilmember Roger Horton — who used to own a restaurant on State Street, served as a board member and president of the Downtown Organization and has been the city’s liaison to the convention and visitor’s bureau for seven years — said some local residents might not realize the value of the tourism business.

“Really, a city that has a substantial amount of revenue from the tourism side is a lucky city, in my opinion,” he said, explaining that visitors bring in money and don’t exact a heavy toll on city services, such as police or fire operations.

“I fully understand why people might think there is too much emphasis placed on tourism, but boy, if you think about the benefits it brings to our community … it’s hard for me to think of a better way to do it,” Horton said.

During the recent budget cycle, when city leaders grappled with a $10.8-million shortfall, funding for the convention and visitor’s bureau had been on the chopping block. But the council agreed to restore that funding to the full amount, one of only a few publicly funded operations to receive that honor.

Horton said the increased revenue brought in through taxes as a result of work done by the marketing bureau would far outweigh that funding.

Keeping ahead of the competition — primarily other coastal cities in Southern California — in terms of maintaining Santa Barbara as a tourist destination is critical, he said.

“It’s a lot more competitive than it used to be even 10, 15 years ago,” he said. “We have to stay one step ahead of it to keep our competitive advantage.”

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Benefits of Tourism : 8/21/2009

1. Cheap exploited labor pool that the community is left to support by subsidized housing, medical care and schools 2. High police costs to patrol the bar zone 3. Denigrated quality of life for locals who venture into the rowdy districts the morning after and see the drunkard's vomit and smell their urine 4. Encouraging local young people to 'party' (meaning to see how much alcohol they can consume in one evening) 5. DUI's, public drunkenness, public fighting, noise, trash and bad attitudes 6. Distorted public spending on the tourist zone to the detriment of needed improvements in real neighborhoods Just to name a few.

RHS

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Taxes : 8/21/2009

The City can not seem to think past getting sales and bed taxes from hotel and tourist spending. What is the community cost of supporting the low wage workers at hotels and restaurants? There needs to be an economic plan to feed, shelter, provide health insurance and educate the low wage tourist workers.

Taxpayer

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Tourism : 8/22/2009

Not all tourist are drunk college students. Visitors come from all over the world. Many are well off with money to spend. Sure the tourist industry has lower paying jobs but these days even low pay jobs are welcome.

Born in CA

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What are the wages nowadays? : 8/22/2009

Wondering...I used to work in the "Motel Hell" industry..

Walter Lord

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tourism : 8/30/2009

Look into what a hotel general manager earns, a director of sales, communications managers, etc... Not all tourism jobs are low paying.

supporter

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