Orange County’s two largest city-focused marketing agencies continue to ramp up their marketing efforts.
Visit Newport Beach and Visit Anaheim are nonprofit groups, dubbed destination marketing organizations (DMOs), working to fuel visitation and promote each of the cities’ collective of restaurants, hotels, venues, and other hospitality hubs.
In September, both DMOs released a fall campaign to highlight the cities’ recovery from the pandemic to become prime travel destinations.
Both organizations have the visitation figures to show for it.
Newport Beach recorded 7.1 million annual visitors for 2022, a return to prior estimates of over 7 million, which contributed to more than $1.2 billion in annual visitor spend with the city.
“Newport Beach is now in the middle of a historic transformation to become an uber-luxury destination for visitors,” Visit Newport Beach’s Chief Executive Gary Sherwin told the Business Journal in June.
The city of Anaheim counted around 25 million visitors for 2022, beating pre-pandemic metrics for the first time. Annual visitors spent over $6 billion throughout the city and generated $15.7 billion across all of Orange County, according to Tourism Economics.
Visit Anaheim expects major developments such as the forthcoming OCVibe project surrounding the Honda Center to help continue “the economic vitality of the region,” according to Visit Anaheim’s CEO Jay Burress.
Vacation Club
Visit Newport Beach recently reported that two of its campaigns from the 2022-2023 fiscal year secured thousands of bookings for the city. Its 2022 summer campaign brought in around 3,500 bookings and its spring marketing from this year secured over 6,000 bookings.
The DMO works to promote openings of high-end businesses as part of its efforts to advertise the city as a luxury destination.
The organization is currently touting its support for the upcoming Pendry Newport Beach hotel with the theme of its new marketing campaign that creates an inclusive membership club dubbed “The Newport Beach Vacation Club.” It promotes all 52.92 square miles of the city as an exclusive experience for visitors, or “members.”
“Your membership officially activates upon stepping foot on the grounds,” the campaign states.
The new campaign coincides with Pendry’s own members-only program, The Elwood Club, which opens in October with the hotel.
“Our new product provides even more incentive for us to cultivate a new visitor both domestically and internationally,” Sherwin said of the city’s hospitality additions.
The campaign also includes Visit Newport Beach’s first line of merchandise, a mix of shirts and accessories.
Survivor
Anaheim’s newest campaign titled “Here We Go” shows the city in its post-pandemic state and aims to welcome back travelers of both leisure and business.
The campaign launched in September with a video showcasing Anaheim business staples including the Angel Stadium, the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim Packing House, Golden Road Brewery, and the city’s growing base of four-diamond hotels.
“The release is intended to demonstrate how Anaheim continues to evolve in a post-pandemic environment,” Christina Dawson, senior vice president of operations, Visit Anaheim, said in a statement.
With major attractions such as the Disneyland Resort closed for over a year, the city’s hotel revenue fell to $30.3 million for the 2020 to 2021 fiscal year. Now, revenue is projected to be back up at $167 million and could reach $184 million for 2022 to 2023.
