Efforts to raise Orange County’s profile as a tourist destination continued with a first-of-its-kind agreement recently struck between the local tourism industry’s two largest organizations.
The Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau and the Orange County Visitors Association in Irvine are set for a number of joint initiatives intended to benefit a combined membership of about 700 businesses and marketing groups.
The Visitor & Convention Bureau has long been a member of the OCVA, an umbrella organization that markets all of Orange County to potential visitors. The bureau is the marketing engine mostly for the Anaheim area, including the city’s convention center. It is the largest destination marketing organization here.
“The key here is we’ve broadened the base of people,” said OCVA President and Chief Executive Ed Fuller. “So [Visitor & Convention Bureau members] now have access to all these initiatives, and we also have access to Anaheim’s initiatives.”
The agreement reflects a sentiment that’s been echoed in recent years among many of the county’s tourism marketing organizations: Work together to sell the county to regional and international visitors rather than have cities working solo.
The goal of the new agreement is to have “the two organizations building together,” Fuller said.
The agreement announced late last month means members of the bureau can participate in international initiatives the OCVA is spearheading. That holds the potential for representation at sales offices overseas and a presence on a Chinese-language website the OCVA has in the works.
The OCVA is credited with making headway in China last year with an initiative that included a visit by a delegation of 15 local tourism executives. The organization opened two sales offices in China and went on a road show to meet with various groups and sell OC’s tourism and meetings businesses.
Similar programs for the Middle East and Mexico are planned for this year.
Visitor & Convention Bureau President and Chief Executive Jay Burress said his organization will retain its own international initiatives in markets not yet targeted by the OCVA.
The agreement allows OCVA members to participate in bureau programs, such as its marketing campaigns with the Automobile Club of Southern California and online travel planning site Expedia Inc.
If a member business or group wants to participate in a particular initiative, its organization will share in the costs, Burress said.
The joint effort by the OCVA and bureau comes under relatively new leadership for both.
“The OCVA has really added … resources and has been able to do more than they have been able to do in the past, and so the timing was right to leverage the strength of both organizations, and a chance to work hand-in-hand,” Burress said. “Some of the things they can help us with are from the education and advocacy standpoint, and some of the cooperative efforts that really bring in the entire county.”
In July, OCVA board appointed Fuller, the former head of Marriott International Inc., to lead the organization as it shifted from a part-time position to the creation of a chief executive post.
The Visitor & Convention Bureau has been undergoing its own changes under Burress, who joined the organization about a year ago from Experience Arlington in Texas.
Burress has reworked the organization’s sales department with a new position and hires. He also plans to add sales staff in Washington, D.C., and an office in Texas. There’s also a rebranding in the works for the organization.
