Executive Directors Notes
By Franҫoise Rhodes
Just when I thought I could take a breather or two amazing opportunities for Borrego Springs came the Chamber's way. Many of you don't realize (and probably never thought about it) that when the pandemic hit the travel media world was hit even harder. Travel came to a stop and advertising dollars dried up. Journalists were let go, many retired, others moved into different genres of news. The media pool of travel writers, bloggers, radio shows and television in a sense dried up. Many past associations were gone because of no outlets for their work.
In the past two years I have worked tirelessly to keep Borrego Springs relevant, working with media that hung on to whatever they could, making new connections, building new marketing strategies and associates and more, all in an effort to keep the local economy going. It has been challenging because media and advertising is an area that when people see results they often don't attribute its origin.
With that said I'm proud to say our association with Visit California is better than ever. Our digital footprint is regularly on platforms with over 500,000 followers, and we are carefully placing advertising dollars that brings people to Borrego and grows the economy. The process is the snowball effect, if someone else is talking about it, the others want to also.
I'm excited to announce that Borrego Springs will be featured in the summer issue of Food & Travel national publication...why summer, because of our Dark Sky Community. This publication has an 800,000 print circulation and a mind boggling digital presence. Even though the story theme is dark skies, the story will be about what there is to do in Borrego.
Next up, Samantha Browns Travel Show on the Discovery Channel will be coming to Borrego in June to film for an upcoming segment about small communities with a lot to offer visitors. At this time I won't be releasing filming dates, but make sure your business is looking good!
It's time for me to get back to work, I have a lot going on.
Remember to please keep your pets off of the hot pavement as asphalt temperatures have been measured to run 40-60 degrees hotter than the surrounding air temperature and will burn your pets paws!!!!
Feel free to stop by the Chamber and say "Hello", we'll be open during the summer and it's nice to talk face to face.
