Sonoma County Tourism tackles coronavirus impact, future plans at annual meeting

Over the last three years, Sonoma County Tourism has navigated through multiple fires, power shutoffs, a flood and, now, the pandemic.

“This was a year unlike any other,” said Claudia Vecchio, SCT’s president and CEO, at the organization’s Wednesday virtual annual meeting, titled “We’re All in This Together.”

At the start of fiscal year 2019-2020, she noted, the goal was to increase revenue to the county by 2%, but that figure wound up at 1.4%, impacted not only by COVID-19, but also the Kincade Fire that ignited in October 2019.

“That is something we’ll continue to track, but obviously bringing revenue into the destination is the most important thing that we do as an organization,” she said.

Vecchio also said plans to develop and implement a long-term destination master plan — announced at SCT’s 2019 annual meeting — have been temporarily shelved.

The pandemic’s impact on the hospitality workforce, amounting to a nearly 30% loss in jobs, also was addressed at the meeting, noted both by Dr. Robert Eyler, dean of the School of Extended and International Education and a professor of economics at Sonoma State University; and Lynda Hopkins, Sonoma County 5th District supervisor.

“The impact is profound and it’s something that should concern all of us, especially those of us in local government,” Hopkins said. “This doesn’t just impact personal income. The long tail of this, is the economic pressure felt within families and within communities, and the fear, quite frankly, of seeing shuttered doors and windows on main streets that are just the life blood of our communities.”

Hopkins also announced that on Monday the county’s Economic Development Board will open up a grant application process for small businesses — and that the process will not be handled on a first come, first served basis.

“It’s going to go by those most impacted by the government regulations that were put in place to limit the spread of COVID-19,” Hopkins said. “When you look at our restaurants that continue to struggle under the regulations, that’s where we’re going to try to funnel our dollars. It’s not going to go out equally.”

Lori Angstadt, Sonoma County Tourism’s vice president of finance and operations, reported on the organization’s financials.

SCT has a $5.3 million budget for fiscal year 2020-2021, Angstadt said. While significantly less than its nearly $8 million budget for fiscal year 2019-2020, cuts were already being made in March because of the pandemic, she said. SCT’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30.

The cost reductions included, but were not limited to, furloughing and laying off staff members, decreasing the executive team’s salaries, stopping advertising and promotions, and canceling contracts with its domestic public relations agency, as well as international tourism agencies that promote the region, Angstadt reported. Vecchio detailed to the Business Journal in late March the scope of the cuts.

SCT’s estimated loss in revenue from March to June was approximately $1.95 million, a downturn of 24.6% from the budgeted revenue, Angstadt said. The organization expects to finish the year at around $5.975 million, a 25.3% total decrease from budget, she said.

“With adjustments to our operations, we estimate that our departmental spending (for the current fiscal year) will remain consistent with budget, with marketing still being almost 45% of our total expenditures,” she said. “We’re still finalizing our (2019-2020 fiscal year) results, but estimate we should be able to finish the year close to a net-zero income with no financial losses.”

The majority of SCT’s funding comes from a 2% assessment on applicable lodging rooms within the Sonoma County Tourism Business Improvement Area.

Also presenting at the annual meeting was Amir Eylon, president of Longwoods International, a Columbus, Ohio-based travel and tourism marketing research firm SCT commissioned about two years ago. Eylon discussed results of visitor surveys, both for the county and nationally. Key insights included 66% of study participants interested in traveling this fall said the main reason would be to visit family and friends; while 58% expressed interest in taking a road trip.

State Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, gave opening remarks that included an emphasis on the significance of leisure and hospitality job losses to the state’s economy, and updates on the state’s plans around COVID-19, including a goal for a 48-hour turnaround time for test results at any state-sponsored testing facility.

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.