Plenty of people around the country know about San Diego’s allure as a vacation destination for families, including its beaches, the zoo and SeaWorld.
But this spring and summer the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau is broadening its tourist appeal to young, affluent hipsters around the country who, along with the well-known local attractions, love the local night life and live music entertainment enough to make it the central part of a San Diego vacation.
ConVis is in the middle of a $300,000 multimedia campaign,San Diego Soundscape,to spread the word about its local nightlife and music scene. The goal is to lure a new category of tourists who will be spending money here: A rock ‘n’ roll fan aged 25 to 54 with a household income of $75,000 or higher.
“We’re trying to broaden our market,” said Michael Mark, creative director and chief executive of NYCA, the Encinitas-based ad agency that works for ConVis.
The campaign’s Web site, SanDiego.org/music, enables downloads of music recordings and describes the local music history, and offers the chance to book hotel stay packages near local music venues.
Insomnia Radio Network, an Internet station broadcasting indie music, is playing the San Diego music to listeners in San Diego’s key markets. The station’s Web site offers package deals and a contest for a free “rock ‘n’ roll” trip to San Diego.
Hot Ad Season
David Peckinpaugh, ConVis president and chief executive, said the marketing budget is $1 million, with a large emphasis put on the summer season advertising.
“Summer is really our make it or break it season,” Peckinpaugh said.
An outside market research firm analyzes each campaign for how well it brings in tourism dollars in a report reviewed before each new season.
A key benchmark is the number of local hotel room nights sold during a campaign. Last year set a new record, with 73.5% occupancy during the summer.
San Diego is still considered among the top five travel destinations in the country, ranking with Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Orlando.
Anaheim also ranks high with visitors. It ranks No. 4 among the top 25 markets for hotel business during the past five years, according to data from Hendersonville, Tenn.-based Smith Travel Research, which tracks hotel markets.
The biggest potential tourist markets for San Diego are within 500 miles, said Peckinpaugh, including Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, Arizona and Las Vegas.
In Anaheim, the spring and summer leisure travel campaign by the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau included ads on MySpace.com, TripAdvisor.com, YahooTravel.com, SixNewthings.com and Daily Candy.
Last year, 71% of visitors to the bureau Web site, anaheimoc.org, said they visited OC after checking out the Web site.
Web visitors spent $2.7 billion during their stay, according to Anaheim bureau stats.
Anaheim’s Fall for OC program, in its second year, generated a 9% increase in hotel room bookings in 2006.
This year, the promotion includes a dedicated Web page, consumer e-news and a new online travel agent.
Both bureaus also use public relations as a way to augment its paid advertising efforts.
The Anaheim bureau generated 282 Anaheim or Orange County stories last year that reached 101 million prospective visitors. The bureau valued the editorial coverage at $6 million in advertising equivalency.
Mark Larson is a freelance writer for the San Diego Business Journal. Sandi Cain also contributed to this story.
