California’s tourism agency to dedicate nearly $5M in push to reignite business meetings

As a sign of the significant economic contribution business meetings bring to California, the state agency dedicated to promoting leisure travel is about to add attracting business travel to its marketing efforts.

Visit California has unveiled “Meet What’s Possible,” a campaign designed to appeal to businesses to bring their work gatherings back to the state. The nonprofit has designated to the initiative $4.5 million of the $95 million it received in stimulus funds earlier this year.

“Meetings and events play an integral role in California’s economy, and in close concert with (our) campaign partners, we look forward to charting a path toward a powerful recovery,” said Caroline Beteta, president and CEO of Visit California, whose organization earlier this month presented its campaign to meeting planners at a two-city conference, starting in Chicago and finishing in Minneapolis.

A task force of 10 of the state’s 20 tourism agencies, including Visit Napa Valley, will advise Visit California on the best path forward in 2022 toward promoting the state as a premier events destination.

“It’s really important that the meeting business recovers,” said Linsey Gallagher, president and CEO of Visit Napa Valley. “We lost a lot of our share in that business when we were closed in California and many other states were not. … We are definitely open and accepting that business again.”

Gallagher also addressed the possibility that businesses that held off-site gatherings elsewhere while California was on lockdown may not be quick to return. And meetings and events are typically booked well in advance, sometimes as far out as two years ahead.

“We really are going to have to earn that business back, and it's so important to us to have Visit California leading with a statewide message,” Gallagher said, noting Visit California’s funding will help smaller destinations like Napa that don’t have a wealth of resources.

Visit California’s task force was designed as a mix of destinations that normally host large events and conferences, and smaller places like Napa Valley that have their own attributes, Gallagher said.

It’s those smaller places that are forecast to be first to recover the meetings business, she noted.

“It’s not projected that the 10,000-person convention is going to recover as quickly as the 30-person, smaller format in-person meeting,” Gallagher said. “We see smaller, more intimate business or incentive trips coming back really strong in 2022.”

Although Napa Valley will continue to be driven by leisure travel, Gallagher said the destination has a clear opportunity to capitalize on its share of business meetings sooner than later.

In fact, Visit Napa Valley got that ball rolling earlier this year when it launched its “Crush that Meeting” campaign, which showcases Napa’s outdoor opportunities, as well as options for indoor gatherings. The campaign has received positive feedback, Gallagher said, so the agency plans to increase its investment for the 2022 calendar year. Visit Napa Valley’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30.

“We’re hearing from meeting planners in particular that people are really anxious to get back out on the road and travel again,” Gallagher said, “but that there's a lot of anxiety around the safety side of things.”

Sonoma County Tourism also needs the resources Visit California is offering, according to the bureau’s chief, but she expressed surprise the state agency got involved.

“It's fairly unusual for a state tourism office to take on the meetings market, and the reason is that most of the time … key meeting destinations (like) San Francisco and Palm Springs are all pretty staunch competitors to one another,” said Claudia Vecchio, president and CEO of Sonoma County Tourism. “Visit California taking on the meetings market is really beneficial for smaller destinations like Sonoma County, because certainly the financial muscle of Visit California and the inroads they can create for destinations like ours is really good.”

Sonoma County Tourism two months ago added a new group of business development professionals to its team, and they already have converted two leads into actual meetings, Vecchio said.

Both meetings will be for medical businesses, according to Jonny Westom, vice president of business development. The first meeting, which will have about 225 attendees, is set to take place in the first quarter. The second meeting, slated for about 84 attendees, is scheduled for the second quarter, he said.

Vecchio said the tourism bureau’s business development team is being “both strategic and aggressive” in finding the types of meetings that should come to Sonoma County. “We've always been a place for incentive travel and corporate travel, and some association travel, but they are generally a little bit more financially conservative than some of the others.”

SCT also is exploring new business segments for meetings, such as the cannabis industry and organizations in the sustainability, fire prevention and resiliency space, Vecchio said.

“We’re staying super focused and are very mindful about the needs of meeting planners as we continue to have to grapple with all that COVID is dealing to us,” she said.

Visit California’s task force also includes Long Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau, Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, Monterey County Convention & Visitors Bureau, San Diego Tourism Authority, San Francisco Travel, Santa Monica Travel & Tourism, Visit Anaheim, Visit Greater Palm Springs and Visit Santa Barbara.

Cheryl Sarfaty covers tourism, hospitality, health care and education. She previously worked for a Gannett daily newspaper in New Jersey and NJBIZ, the state’s business journal. Cheryl has freelanced for business journals in Sacramento, Silicon Valley, San Francisco and Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from California State University, Northridge. Reach her at cheryl.sarfaty@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4259.