Multiyear strategic tourism plan unveiled
A plan to grow visitor spending and community funding by billions of dollars without necessarily increasing the number of travelers to the region was unveiled by the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau at its annual meeting last week.
Rob O'Keefe, Convention and Visitors Bureau president and CEO, released the new annual business plan and the Convention and Visitors Bureau's firstever multi-year strategic roadmap at the meeting attended by local business owners, elected officials and stakeholders.
O'Keefe had said in the week leading up to one of the year's biggest visitor draws to the area — Classic Car Week — that “now is the perfect time to get to strategic planning. In short, COVID forced everyone to think differently, to be more open-minded to change than any time in recent history. Open minds are needed for reimagination.”
The Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau worked with globally recognized partners, including strategic planning firm Coraggio Group, and Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company, to research and identify the needs of the local community and hospitality industry.
“The plan is intended to build upon the existing jurisdiction investment, … to enhance it,” said O'Keefe. “The new (Tourism Improvement District) will significantly increase the value of that investment. We have the potential to incrementally increase visitor spending by as much as $2.2 billion for the county, which in turn would result in nearly $60 million in incremental (hotel tax).
The return on investment is a boost to quality of life for our communities.”
A number of other destinations had already done long-term strategic plans including regions in direct competition with Monterey County for visitor dollars, and O'Keefe acknowledged that the local Convention and Visitors Bureau was “a little behind.”
The research uncovered needed insight into Monterey County's competitors to create an approach that will make Monterey County more competitive. The resulting roadmap is built on hundreds of survey responses — from residents to business owners — as well as interviews with local civic and industry leaders and community input forums held throughout the county.
A Strategic Planning Taskforce, including Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau board of directors Chair Teri Owens, led the development of the plan.
“The ultimate beneficiary of Monterey County's tourism economy are our residents,” said O”Keefe. “Visitor spending fuels transient occupancy tax and sales tax, which in turn fuels community prosperity. We are a tourism destination. And this master plan for longterm growth is centered on driving community quality of life.”
According to the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the plan prioritizes extended stays over increasing overall visitor volume, increasing the promotion of sustainable, responsible and respectful travel,
and more engagement with community partners, including Monterey Regional Airport, Monterey-Salinas Transit, Visit Carmel, Monterey County Hospitality Association, Monterey County Vintners & Growers Association, area chambers of commerce, and more.
The plan targets both domestic and international leisure travelers and places a strong emphasis on bringing highly valuable groups and conferences to the area — as business travelers typically stay longer, have a smaller impact on the destination, and travel mid-week and during the offseason.
“Currently meetings and conferences are about 80% of what they were prior to COVID,” said O'Keefe. “A major component to the strategic plan is to come back better than before COVID and meetings and conferences are a critical part of that.”
The Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau is looking to increase its budget through the Monterey County Tourism Improvement District in order to execute the ambitious goal of growing visitor spending and community funding by billions of dollars.
The Tourism Improvement District, which includes nearly all of Monterey County, is funded directly by visitors through hotels and lodging properties — an increase that would have no implications on local taxpayers or impact community funding, says the Convention and Visitors Bureau. The increase would provide the bureau with the additional budget to be more competitive against nearby destinations like Napa, Sonoma, and San Luis Obispo counties, which already have significantly larger budgets
to attract high-value leisure visitors and meetings and conferences.
For example, the Tourism Economics study showed that Monterey County's destination marketing budget is $640 per room — Monterey County has 12,000 rooms — compared to Napa's budget firepower, which is $1,310 per room, he said.
The boundaries of the plan include the addition of South County cities subject to future approval by each one's city councils prior to July 1, 2023.
The Monterey County Tourism Improvement District is managed under the exclusive authority of the Monterey County Tourism Improvement District Oversight Committee made up of a dozen hotel owner/operators ranging from smaller hotels to major resorts.
O'Keefe stressed that the strategic plan is centered on community prosperity in line with the Convention and Visitors Bureau's new vision, “a thriving tourism economy that enriches Monterey County's economic vitality and quality of life” as well as its mission, “to generate community prosperity for Monterey County through the responsible promotion and growth of the tourism economy.”
“The goal isn't necessarily more travelers,” said O'Keefe. “This new plan emphasizes travelers who come from further distances and tend to stay longer. That does not mean we will stop marketing the destination to our Bay Area and Central Valley drive markets — they will always be critical. It just gives us a broader target to reach valuable fly market visitors, a group our competitors have had an advantage on in the past.”