Countywide : Visitors’ Bureau to Promote Ventura

The Ventura Visitors’ Bureau, a city-funded agency that promotes tourism, will launch its first “sales blitz.”

The campaign, which will take place on March 28 and 29, will involve volunteers canvassing the city’s businesses to promote Ventura as a center for corporate conventions and regional meetings of church and business associations.

“With so few farms left in the city and the oil companies leaving us, tourism is becoming more and more important to Ventura’s tax base,” said bureau spokeswoman Janis Flippen.

Ventura Mayor Richard Francis said he hoped the campaign would help the city’s 35 hotels, which are currently operating at about a 50% occupancy rate. “It’s a good, clean industry and we need it,” Francis said.

Last year about 2 million tourists visited the city--about 700,000 stayed overnight--and spent $81 million in food, lodging and entertainment, said Russ Smith, the executive director.