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OC Hospitality Execs’ New Role: Leaders of PAC

A number of local tourism groups are backing OC Travel PAC, a new political action committee that will aim to influence elected officials and candidates at the county level on hospitality and travel issues.

The PAC is set to be formally announced at the Orange County Visitors Association’s annual tourism conference at Disney’s Grand California Hotel & Spa in Anaheim on May 6.

Irvine-based OCVA bills itself as “the official voice for tourism in the county advocating on behalf of the industry and marketing the region both domestically and globally.”

Strategic

The political action committee was “born out of a strategic plan developed by OCVA” but will be legally and financially separate from the groups supporting it, said Chairman Gary Sherwin, adding that “it has its own board and its own bank account.”

The board includes:

• Sherwin, president and chief executive of Newport Beach & Co.;

• Kyndell Thorson, manager of government relations for Disneyland Resort;

• Tyler Gentry, government affairs manager at the Irvine Chamber of Commerce;

• Jay Burress, president and chief executive of the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau;

• Kelly Miller, president and chief executive of Visit Huntington Beach; and

• Ed Fuller, president and chief executive of the Orange County Visitors Association.

Judy Bijlani, past president and chief executive of Visit Laguna Beach, is the PAC’s executive director.

Fuller said the new group plans to keep a tight focus on policy and politics at the county level.

“We’re not headed out there to change Washington,” Fuller said. “We want leaders here to be part and parcel of tourism.”

Vital

The PAC is needed to supplement the marketing done by various local hospitality and tourism groups, Sherwin said. “Tourism assets” such as John Wayne Airport and the industry’s importance to OC’s economy call for emphasis on the county level of government.

Market research from OCVA indicates that some 46 million people visited Orange County in 2014, up about 4% from 2013.

About 10%—4.7 million passenger arrivals—came through John Wayne Airport, OCVA said.

Just less than 10% of the total—4.1 million people—were international travelers, data show.

OCVA said there are about 493,000 “tourism-related” jobs in Orange County.

Selling Orange County “as a region makes sense—people understand it,” said Sherwin. “We can’t delegate marketing to Disneyland.”

The PAC wants to apply similar logic to county politics.

“This is about coming together as a region, to remain competitive and strong as a destination,” Sherwin said.

Local

OC Travel PAC plans to raise money mainly through fundraising dinners and other events, he said.

“We have relatively modest financial aspirations.”

A number of industry PACs already work to influence legislators’ decisions at the state and federal levels.

Michael Jacobson directs the national political action committee of the U.S. Travel Association, a Washington, D.C.-based national trade association for the travel and tourism industry.

The association’s members include hotels, cruise lines, car rental companies, online travel agencies, state tourism offices, and destination marketing associations, including the Anaheim/OC Visitor & Convention Bureau.

The association’s PAC supports congressional candidates, similar to how the new local group plans to support county hopefuls.

OC Travel PAC is the only one Jacobson has heard of that’s county-focused.

“It’s kind of a unique setup,” he said.

Jacobson said that the the new group is important.

“It’s a way to guarantee [legislators] get re-elected and continue to support tourism,” he said. “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

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