Shifting ideas, faces in tourism marketing
06.07.2009, 21:44
New leaders to take control in June, plan to build on previous group's work
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A major overhaul of Sonoma County's tourism marketing shifts into high gear this week as officials finalize a contract for a new executive director and move to take over a program previously run by the county government.
A new governing board -- heavily represented by the lodging industry which will provide two-thirds of the funding for new marketing promotions -- is also drafting contracts with vendors and ad agencies this week in preparation for an official takeover by the end of June.
"We are building on the work already done by the county, so we are not starting from zero," said Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn General Manager Thomas Becker, the new chairman of a 22-member tourism council. "It will be a new process with way more financial resources to do what we had only dreamed of before."
For the past seven years, Sonoma County has used bed-tax funds to pay for tourism promotion, which amounted to about $1.3 million last year. During that time, tourism promotion has been the function of a county-operated tourism program with a 23-member advisory group of industry volunteers devoting time and effort to the endeavor.
But last year, the Sonoma County Lodging Industry stepped forward with plans to provide more funding, which naturally entailed giving hotel operators and innkeepers more clout. Visitors staying in Sonoma County hotels and inns generate about 42 percent of the $1 billion in revenues attributed to tourism, according to state estimates.
A new 2 percent room revenue surcharge, approved last year by most hotels in the county, will add another $2 million to the effort to sell Sonoma County's Wine Country image to tourists.
Ben Stone, coordinator of the county Economic Development Board, said the transition from a county to quasi-government function has been going smoothly. "It is the EDB model to get things started and spin them off," Stone said.
The new Sonoma County Tourism Bureau was incorporated as a nonprofit agency last January
Within the next 10 days, the bureau's new 22-member governing board plans to announce an executive director.
Last week, the group made job offers to county Tourism Program staff members, although some -- such as the current director, Susanne Woodrum -- are choosing to retain their county government seniority benefits by remaining county employees.
Woodrum will join the EDB office as a department analyst. Catherine DePrima will continue as public relations officer for tourism, moving from the county office to the new bureau.
The new tourism bureau is also awaiting a decision this week from the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce on a contract for assuming control of Wine Country Meetings, a chamber program that promotes the area as a location for meetings and conventions.
Scott Ormerod of Leap Solutions, a Santa Rosa management consulting company handling transition details for the new bureau, said the board agreed last week to take over Wine Country Meetings and the chamber is expected to ratify the deal.
The new bureau's board has also agreed to continue contracting with companies that currently produce the Visitors Guide, the maps of tourist sights and advertising.
Most of those contracts expire before the end of the year, so the new bureau will review them as it increases its coffers through bed tax funds and dollars from the new room surcharge, Ormerod said.
The new bureau is operating out of temporary office space at 1220 N. Dutton Ave.
Currently, board members are focused on finalizing details of the contract that will go to Sonoma County supervisors on June 7, Ormerod said. It expects to submit a budget and marketing plan to supervisors June 21.