Somona County Tourism on Wednesday recapped its final fiscal yr and introduced objectives for its new one, which started July 1.
Hinting of upcoming nationwide publicity on a community morning present earlier than an viewers at its annual assembly, held at Sonoma State College, the tourism company set out targets which embody:
– reaching a 5% year-over-year enhance in income to the county’s lodging properties
– encouraging extra in a single day visitation on weekdays
– restarting worldwide journey commerce and public relations efforts within the U.Okay., Germany and Australia.
Vacation spot stewardship efforts are additionally excessive precedence, stated Claudia Vecchio, president and CEO of Sonoma County Tourism. That features quite a lot of efforts, resembling encouraging guests to guard the area they go to and goal to go away it higher than they discovered it.
Jonny Westom, vp of enterprise growth, mentioned efforts to enhance the notion of Sonoma County to assembly planners.
The company commissioned Northstar Journey Group to carry out a nationwide survey of assembly planners, which discovered 67% had by no means heard of the county, and of those that have, 66% described their notion as “excellent” or “glorious.”
To win over extra individuals and lift the county’s profile, officers outlined plans to create a conferences and occasions video collection that showcases space points of interest and venues. The movies shall be launched within the coming weeks, Weston stated.
SCT is also enterprise a whole overhaul of its web site, which can launch subsequent yr, stated Todd O’Leary, vp of promoting and communications.
Within the subsequent few weeks, SCT will formally introduce its cellular app, however over the summer season, the tourism company jumped on the TikTok bandwagon.
“Simply to talk to the recognition of TikTok, it’s the primary social media platform to succeed in 1 billion customers, quicker than some other social app,” O’Leary stated. “As SCT works to succeed in the coveted millennial and Gen Z audiences, and as a tactic to extend model consciousness and engagement, our TikTok channel is already working laborious. Since launching this channel earlier this summer season, we’ve already garnered practically 10,000 views.”
O’Leary additionally stated a nationwide partnership is underway.
“We’re working with NBC on a venture that can embody not solely a At the moment Present broadcast from Sonoma County,” he stated, “but in addition a brand-new idea for At the moment Present followers that can embody At the moment Present personalities and plenty of alternatives to share our stunning vacation spot on a nationwide stage.” Remaining dates and particulars are to come back, he added.
On the finances facet, on July 1, SCT entered its fiscal yr 2022-2023 with an estimated finances of $9.9 million, Vecchio stated. That’s larger than its pre-pandemic finances of $8 million in fiscal yr 2019-2020. The vast majority of the company’s funding comes from a 2% evaluation on relevant lodging rooms inside the Sonoma County Tourism Enterprise Enchancment Space.
Lori Angstadt, Sonoma County Tourism’s vp of finance and operations, stated SCT spent just below $9.5 million for fiscal yr 2021-2022.
“As at all times, the biggest portion is spent on advertising and public relations, (which) was nearly 60% of complete expenditures,” she stated. “Enterprise growth and journey commerce obtained 16.2%; neighborhood engagement 7.4%; and administrative applications (obtained) 16.6%.”
