A few weeks ago on Memorial Day, we commemorated the sacrifices of those who fought and died for our country.
It was also the start of the summer travel season.
This is a critical summer for all of us. While rebuilding efforts continue, visitors will be coming to find respite from their own everyday challenges.
As those of us lucky enough to live here know, Sonoma County is a region of extraordinary beauty flanked by the rugged coastline, charming towns, and vibrant hillsides.
Travelers come to Sonoma County with high expectations. Many will come in support of Wine Country and will ask about the fires. Others will come simply to enjoy the world’s finest wine and food, to relax and partake in water sports and enjoy outdoor adventures.
For many, Sonoma County is a destination on their personal travel “bucket list” as part of a lifelong desire to visit California’s storied Wine Country, dip a toe in the Pacific Ocean, or learn how to prepare a favorite dish. They’re here to experience this coveted destination and to brag about their remarkable experiences to their friends – in short, to reap all the benefits you receive when you travel.
Let’s work together to welcome visitors with open arms, smiling faces, and knowledgeable insights that ensure our guests treasure the time they spend with us. Let’s show them the amazing hospitality they’ll enjoy bragging about to their friends. And, while we’re at it, let’s invite them to visit again.
I wish you all a successful and joyous summer season.
- Claudia
Claudia Vecchio, CEO
Sonoma County Tourism
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Advertising opportunities
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The
2019 issue of the must-have Official Sonoma County Visitors Guide and Map
— a comprehensive travel planner published in partnership with Sonoma County Tourism and Studio M Publishing
—is in the works.
Learn more.
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Sonoma County Tourism is anchoring a two-page co-op ad in the 2019 California Visitor's Guide, a 200-page all-inclusive travel planner designed to inspire consumers traveling to and within California.
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Save the date:
Sonoma County Tourism 2018 Annual Meeting
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Date:
Aug. 30, 2018
Time:
7:30 – 10 a.m.
This has been an extraordinary year in the history of Sonoma County and Sonoma County Tourism. Join us as we look back at the year and forward to a promising future.
More details to come.
Registration will open soon.
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California Economic Summit set for Santa Rosa
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Register today to get the early bird rates for the 2018 California Economic Summit, Nov. 15 and 16 in Santa Rosa. This is the seventh annual statewide gathering of this growing network
—
the largest group of business, equity, environmental, and civic organizations working year round to improve upward mobility, build more housing, create a strong workforce, and strengthen the state's water sustainability. Regional tours will be hosted by Sonoma County partners on Nov. 14, with activities to explore Sonoma County over the weekend after the summit. Learn more at
summit.caeconomy.org
.
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Sonoma County Tourism News
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Sonoma County tourism economy grows by 2.3%;
nearly $2.1 billion economic impact
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A recently released report from Visit California shows that the overall tourism economy in Sonoma County grew by 2.3 percent in 2017.
Total direct travel spending in Sonoma County was $2.09 billion for 2017, according to the annual Dean Runyan Associates economic study performed for Visit California.
The total number of jobs in the tourism economy also grew by 4.66 percent, with 22,690 jobs now in the tourism sector locally. That equates to more than one in 10 private employer jobs in Sonoma County.
There has also been a 1.8 percent increase in collected government revenue in the form of local and state taxes. Currently, tourism in Sonoma County brings in $177.7 million in government revenue. Local taxes collected were $92.4 million of that total government revenue.
In Sonoma County, tourism tax money is used for regional parks, public safety, economic development, agricultural promotion, and arts and cultural festivals as well as general funds for cities and the county.
According the Sonoma County Economic Development Board’s Annual Tourism Report, 91 percent of Sonoma County tourism businesses are locally owned, and 82 percent are small businesses, employing fewer than 25 employees.
Statewide, visitors spent a record $132.4 billion, and the tourism industry provided more than 1.1 million jobs for Californians. State and local tax revenue generated by tourism reached $10.9 billion in California in 2017.
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Presenting Sonoma County to travel buyers at IPW
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Sonoma County Tourism sent a delegation to Denver, Colorado for the 50th IPW on May 21-24, 2018. The U.S. Travel Association’s IPW is the travel industry's premier international marketplace and the largest generator of travel to the U.S.
Attending from SCT were
Claudia Vecchio, SCT president/CEO, Tim Zahner, COO, Biggi Vaughan, public relations manager, S
usan Takano, SCT tourism development manager, Deleyse Langdale, SCT vice president of global tourism development,
and Joe Bartolomei, chair of SCT's board of directors.
At IPW, 1,000 travel-focused companies and destination marketing organizations from every corner of the United States met with more than 1,300 domestic and international buyers over three days of intensive pre-scheduled appointments. (IPW also included a media marketplace with over 500 domestic and international journalists.)
In the photo above, Susan Takano (second from left) and Deleyse Langdale (on right) meet with travel buyers at IPW. To learn more about IPW, watch the video below.
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Working with 38 North Connections
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Sarika Sheth, founder and managing partner of 38 North Connections meeting consultants, worked with Suzy Montes, SCT national sales manager, and Charmaine Louzao, SCT meeting sales and services manager, to bring in some of Sheth’s top Bay Area clients for a familiarization tour of Sonoma County, May 46.
Many of the group were seeing Sonoma County for the first time. They stayed at Vintners Inn, and enjoyed touring four-star properties and a variety of offsite venues that they could be recommending. They completed their visit with a tour and lunch at Safari West. Thank you to all the SCT partners who helped make this tour a success.
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Welcoming new Sonoma County Tourism staff
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Jennifer Richards named new vice president sales
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Jennifer Richards, former general manager for the Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country, joined SCT as its vice president of sales. She will help bolster the success of partner lodging properties and lead the overall destination sales efforts. She also is responsible for attracting and booking conventions, trade shows, conferences and meetings, group tours, and social groups to Sonoma County.
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Langdale tapped as VP global tourism development
Deleyse Langdale, SCT's former international sales director, rejoined the organization as its vice president of global tourism development, a new position. She is responsible for driving visitation to Sonoma County through developing programs and campaigns targeted at the domestic and international individual group leisure travelers.
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Sonoma County and the Media
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Wendy Gillette of CBS News, at right, chats at the Paradise Ridge tasting room in Kenwood with winemaker Dan Barwick, at left, and Shelby Pollack, Gillette's assistant.
Gillette visited the area to shoot a segment on Sonoma County’s post-fires recovery and how tourism is coming back these tragedies. The segment is for CBS Moneywatch, which feeds CBS shows such as CBS News, CBS Evening News, CBS This Morning, and other CBS platforms.
The main estate of Paradise Ridge was lost in the fires. While the rebuilding process continues, visitors can enjoy the wines at the Kenwood tasting room.
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Pitching to journalists at IPW
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SCT Public Relations Manager Biggi Vaughan promotes story ideas about Sonoma County to a Canadian travel writer at the IPW media marketplace in May. More than 500 journalists attended the show to get updates about American destinations. Biggi was part of the SCT staff delegation to IPW to reach both travel buyers and writers. (See story above.)
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Outdoor writers discover Sonoma County
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While attending their annual conference May 7-9 in Santa Rosa, more than 20 members of the Outdoor Writers Association of California (OWAC) spent time exploring Sonoma County and posting positively about the experience on social media. The writers and editors left the area with a deeper appreciation for Sonoma County.
Conference attendee Ray Rychnovsky took the above photo of a few of his colleagues visiting Safari West. Other partners who assisted in the four-day getaway include the Flamingo Resort, Hotel La Rose, Garden Valley Ranch, Russian River Rose Company, Wine Country Trekking, and Jack London State Historic Park.
OWAC membership includes newspaper and magazine staffers, freelance writers, book authors, radio broadcasters, video producers, editors, photographers, artists, lecturers, and information officers.
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Sonoma County in the news...
With the help of our partners, Sonoma County Tourism continues to assist the media when they visit and write about our beautiful region. Here's a brief sampling of the results — recent articles and blogs promoting Sonoma County.
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By Gemma Price
Architectural Digest (UMV: 1,496,746)
Hosted by SCT in the past, writer Price includes Kenwood Inn & Spa, Gaige House + Ryokan, and Farmhouse Inn
in her roundup of the best Wine Country boutique hotels.
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By Marc Stirdivant
Los Angeles Times
(circ.: 431,076; UMV: 23,904,510
)
Playing off the Royal Wedding in the UK, the article highlights WorldMark Windsor, KIN Windsor, KC’s American Kitchen, Old Redwood Brewing Co., St. Florian’s Brewery, and Russian River Brewing Co.
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By Allison McCarthy
Sunset Magazine (cir.: 1,262,532; UMV: 2,097,88)
Appearing both in the magazine and online, the article includes Acre Coffee, Clavey Paddlesports, The Drawing Board, Truck & Barter, Petaluma Seed Bank, The Block, Barber Cellars, The Shuckery, and Hotel Petaluma.
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By Sunny Montefiore
Men’s Journal (UMV: 3,466,849)
As a result of SCT’s pitching efforts, Spring Lake Regional Park was featured in this article. It also mentions Russian River Brew Pub, St. Francis Winery, Funky Fridays, Country Summer Music Festival, Historic Railroad Square, and Hotel La Rose.
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CalTravel names Paradise Ridge as Winery of the Year
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Paradise Ridge Winery in Santa Rosa was honored as the California Travel Winery of the Year by CalTravel, the statewide organization that serves as a unified voice for California's Travel and Tourism industry. The award was presented at CalTravel's annual summit of travel and tourism industry stakeholders, held May 29-June 1 in San Diego. Sonia Byck-Barwick, vice-president and co-owner of Paradise Ridge, accepted the award. The CalTravel Tourism Awards recognize those who have made a dramatic impact for their respective area in the past year through innovation, awareness, creativity, or stewardship.
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America’s vacation behavior is changing
Employers are showing signs of having more encouraging vacation cultures, and employees are feeling more confident about using the time they earn, according to the State of American Vacation 2018 report from Project Time Off.
The future of American Road Trips
Road trips in the United States are statistically on the rise due to both economic and cultural factors. These vacations have incredible potential to reflect what’s simmering beneath the surface of contemporary America.
Brand USA inviting 50 international journalists to visit
Brand USA, in partnership with American Airlines and Marriott International, announced its first-ever Mega Media Venture, inviting more than 50 international journalists to visit the United States, to, through, and beyond the gateways. Brand USA has hosted the similar MegaFam program for travel agents and tour operators.
Brand USA marketing paid off nearly 30-fold
Brand USA's 2017 marketing campaigns generated 1.16 million incremental international visitors to the United States, with a total economic impact of $8.5 billion, supporting 54,212 incremental jobs, according to research by Oxford Economics. The report also said that Brand USA generated $38.4 billion in total economic impact since FY2013.
Learning what Gen Z wants
Gen Z — which will account for 40 percent of consumers and $4 billion in discretionary spending within the next two years — loves print marketing, buy products in stores some or most of the time, and their values matter more to them than price, according to the white paper “Generation Z: Unique and Powerful” by MNI Targeted Media Inc.
Hawaii seeking to calm travelers after volcano eruption
Poor geography knowledge is a bane of nearly every destination’s existence. Natural disasters are an unfortunate opportunity for tourism officials to educate travelers, even if many will always struggle to read a map.
Why the hotel lobby is the perfect antidote to Airbnb
The power of a great lobby is a huge differentiator in hospitality. Hotels shouldn’t forget its power. In fact, they should double down.
Marriott experimenting with homesharing
The largest hotel company in the world is putting Airbnb, HomeAway, and Booking.com on notice — along with fellow hoteliers AccorHotels and Hyatt. Marriott International is launching its official foray into the homesharing market via a six-month pilot in partnership with London-based home rental management company, Hostmaker.
Hilton to reduce environmental footprint
The Hilton hotel and resort company is cutting its environmental footprint in half and will double its social impact investment by 2030. The changes come after a survey of 72,000 Hilton guests found that social, environmental, and ethical considerations were central to buying preferences, especially among customers under the age of 25.
Travel industry needs to promote eco-friendly habits
Tourism accounts for about 10 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study from the University of Sydney and some travel brands are grappling with an inconvenient truth that many travelers still don’t understand environmentally-friendly practices or why they’re important.
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