There’s a sense Jay Burress is hospitality’s businessperson of the past five years.
He’s heading into his fifth as president and chief executive of destination marketer Visit Anaheim.
That half-decade has been jam-packed with new faces, ventures, messages—and results.
Last year, his first five-year plan bore fruit in big ways:
• Anaheim Convention Center opened its 200,000-square-foot expansion to put it over 1 million square feet.
“We can layer events, keep bigger clients, and attract new ones that needed more space,” Burress said of the milestone.
• Last year Visit Anaheim booked about 50 events for future years, on top of 50 each in 2016 and 2015. In 2012—the year before Burress arrived—it booked 35.
“We’re judged on bookings,” he said. “We’re all about the future.”
• Visit Anaheim and the Baltimore and San Antonio DMOs book clients on a rotation under a partnership called Synchronicities. The groups met again in December with meeting planners and others to talk about future work and incentives.
A Man
Jay joined Visit Anaheim in 2013 after serving as president and chief executive of Experience Arlington in Texas for five years.
Before that, he was SVP of sales and marketing with VisitDallas for 20.
Given that—along with formative years in Edmond, Okla., and schooling at Baylor University in Waco, Texas—a firm foundation in Texas sports fandom was inevitable and unlikely to be altered. During his Texas tenure, Arlington hosted an NBA All-Star Game, Super Bowl XLV and two World Series games; saw the debut of the Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium; and held the U.S. Open of Bowling.
He and his wife, Jill, have three kids: Spencer, Andrew, and Annie.
A Plan
His first five years here have seen a flurry of the aforementioned new moves:
• Subsidiary Enterprise Anaheim LLC, a separate, for-profit entity begun this year that produces events.
• Sports Anaheim, launched in March 2016. It quickly held several events for visibility; a recent to-do was a global weightlifting competition, and last year it booked 61 events for future years.
• Visit Anaheim Cares, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit—Visit Anaheim is a 501(c)(6)—that funnels largesse to charities, often from convention center clients that want giving as part of their stays.
“The Perfect China group gave $300,000 to Alzheimer’s” work when it came in 2014, Burress said.
• Burress during his tenure added Junior Tauvaa, senior vice president of sales and services, who sells events into the city, including at the convention center.
• Charles Harris, senior vice president of marketing, who’s beefed up branding and videos, including the group’s 2015 name switch from the old conventions and visitors bureau concept.
“We needed to change dated opinions,” Burress said.
• New DMO digs last year near Angel Stadium, giving it more space and a physical—and symbolic—expansion from a pure-play convention center group.
“We’re after organizational excellence,” Burress said.
More New Moves
An April gathering is scheduled to collect and hash out strategic specifics for the next five years. Ideas the group has gathered point to work in the same areas—destination development, more sales and marketing, community involvement, and improving internal organizational processes—via new methods.
For instance, the group’s Anaheim campus marketing encompasses the convention center and the nearby Hilton, Marriott and Sheraton hotels, and will get a fourth hotel in a few years in Westin Anaheim Resort.
Current marketing includes campaigns for the expanded convention center and distinct efforts in domestic and international markets. Visit Anaheim has representatives selling in China, India, Japan and the Middle East via a relationship with Irvine-based Orange County Visitors Association, which promotes the county as a whole.
Pelican
Burress’ actions go beyond Anaheim environs, work that began before he arrived. Take Pelican Hill.
“I was coming for the opening of the Grand Plaza” in early 2013, he said.
A destination marketing organization focus group was staying at the Resort at Pelican Hill, and a group staffer asked if he wanted to stay there, too.
Burress at first demurred.
“She said, ‘Uh, no,’” he recalled. “‘You’ll want to see this.’”
