The Orange County Visitors Association has slated a $300,000 promotional blitz in hopes of enticing tourists from San Francisco.
Plans call for a January start for the push, which represents a revival of sorts in efforts in the domestic market for individual travelers. The OCVA has in recent years focused primarily on marketing Orange County to business and leisure travelers in foreign markets. It has two offices each in Mexico and China, along with one in Dubai, and this year added efforts in Japan and India.
The new campaign looks to zero in on a hot market closer to home, targeting travelers from the Bay Area who might otherwise head to the Pacific Northwest and other regional or in-state destinations—Lake Tahoe, Los Angeles or San Diego, for example.
“We definitely want to get market share out of L.A.,” said Jay Burress, president and chief executive of Visit Anaheim.
Visit Anaheim promotes Anaheim and Garden Grove for travel, similar to OCVA’s role in the county as a whole.
Burress’ group—which is a member of OCVA—is kicking in $75,000 to help fund the campaign.
Two other large, city-focused destination marketers—Visit Huntington Beach and Newport Beach & Co.—also will ante up $75,000.
The three groups are major backers of OCVA.
Burress is the incoming board chairman of the group.
Kelly Miller, president and chief executive of Visit Huntington Beach, is the current chairman; Gary Sherwin, president and chief executive of Newport Beach & Co., is the immediate past chairman.
OCVA members contributing to the fourth $75,000 chunk for the campaign include South Coast Plaza and city marketers Destination Irvine, Travel Costa Mesa and Visit Laguna Beach.
Campaign
Plans include TV, digital and radio spots, along with social media and a dedicated website. Also in the works is a travel contest and guerilla marketing, among other elements.
The direct goal is the consumer market in San Francisco, but the campaign also holds the potential to bring ancillary business.
Miller noted increased travel between John Wayne Airport and the Bay Area—which he said had recently improved, thanks to recent talks that led Southwest Airlines to adjust the timing on some flights between the two markets.
Burress said individuals who see the marketing are likely to be connected to companies that will consider OC for corporate travel and conventions.
Sherwin said that the new campaign also aims to inform foreign visitors to the Bay Area that Orange County can accommodate weekend visitors just as well as Los Angeles or San Diego.
“People ‘hopscotch’ us,” he said. “They go San Diego to L.A. to San Francisco. We want to change that.”
OCVA has more than 700 members among them, marketing organizations for various cities throughout the county, hotels, theme parks and other individual businesses.
Its planned push in San Francisco follows the rapid growth of its overseas operations under President and Chief Executive Ed Fuller, who came aboard in July 2013.
Fuller brought four decades of hospitality experience—more than half of that time as president and managing director of Marriott International’s lodging division.
