Escondido Strains to Grab Its Share of Tourist Trade

Escondido has no beaches for moonlit walks, no aquatic amusement parks with 5-ton sea creatures, and even its prime attraction--the San Diego Wild Animal Park--has fewer animals than the San Diego Zoo.

On the other hand, it’s only 30 minutes from everything exciting in San Diego County, close to golf courses and wineries, and offers a rustic atmosphere with an affordable quality of life.

At least that’s the perspective the Escondido Convention & Visitors Bureau, the oldest and most experienced of the North County tourist agencies, would like potential visitors to take as they plan their spring and summer excursions.

But, even the city of Escondido, ConVis’ main financial supporter, has doubts about the financial value of the bureau. In each of the past several years, the city has allocated less money than the prior year, down to a low next year of $100,000 from a high of $300,000 five years ago.

“There have been some questions raised about the need for a ConVis,” said Jack Anderson, assistant city manager. “There were some budget considerations in 1989 and again last year as the budget was being discussed and whether or not it was a greater program than the community needed.”

Even without budgetary concerns, attracting tourists to Escondido takes a little imagination in a city of 106,000 people that is trying to overcome not so much an image problem as the lack--to most outsiders--of an image at all.

Take the following double-edged comment:

“Compared to, say, Bakersfield or San Bernardino, I think Escondido has a good deal going for it,” said Al Reese of the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau, whose 1990 operating budget was a hefty $8.2 million.

“Tourism is a business that everybody wants and every city goes after, and they go after it with what they have to offer, and Escondido probably has more to offer than most.”

While Escondido raked in $500,000 in hotel taxes last year, Carlsbad and San Diego collected $3.4 million and $39.7 million, respectively, during the same period. Oceanside took in $640,000 in hotel revenue.

The Escondido ConVis, the only independent travel bureau in the county other than San Diego’s, is trying--despite a relatively minuscule $300,000 budget--to grab a greater share of the county’s annual $3.4-billion tourism industry.

Still, after 15 years of ConVis efforts, the inland city last year collected less than 1% of the county’s total hotel room taxes, virtually unchanged from 10 years ago.

Oceanside, which does not have an independent visitors bureau, managed to collect slightly more than 1% of the county’s total hotel room taxes last year, also the same rate as 10 years ago. San Diego’s share of the $52 million in hotel room taxes countywide dropped from 78% to 75% over the same period.

Escondido ConVis officials were quick to point out, however, that actual revenue into the city from the hotel tax has grown tremendously in that time, from $115,178 to $492,631 last year.

Whether there would have been the same increase without ConVis “is the million-dollar question,” said Cami Mattson, the bureau’s executive director.

Both Mattson and the city are pinning their hopes on a planned $73.4-million arts center to draw tourists and a full-service hotel.

“Our hotel properties are not a type of property in general that attract tourists. A lot of times people are here to stay with friends and are passing through, as opposed to Escondido being a tourist destination,” said Anderson, the assistant city manager.

“What some people feel is maybe the Convention and Visitors Bureau has been maybe a little ahead of its time, in relation to, for example, the (proposed) arts center.”

In the meantime, the city hopes ConVis will find alternate sources of revenue, such as increased membership and fund-raisers, which now pull in about $50,000 a year.

Drawing tourists to Escondido is a major challenge, unlike in Carlsbad, for example, where the downtown is called a “village” and features tony sidewalk cafes and antique shops. That coastal community, said a Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce spokesman, is “a very easy sell.”

Mattson said Escondido is not scrapping to compete with San Diego, but is instead trying to get visitors to the area to explore North County.

“We’re selling all of North County, because if you sell the big picture, everyone will benefit,” Mattson said.

Mattson emphasizes Escondido’s easy access to the back roads of Julian, the wineries and its proximity to beaches and the big city--all without actually being a big city.

“We have some of the last natural expanses left in Southern California,” Mattson said. “Basically, we’re very centrally located to hit a lot of the attractions. We don’t try to compete with San Diego, because we’re trying to attract a different market.”

That market is made up primarily of Canadians and other “snowbirds” who come to sunny Southern California to take advantage of year-round golfing at one of North County’s 34 courses, as well as Los Angelenos escaping the traffic for a weekend break, and “the value-conscious consumer.”

An advertisement in Golf Digest magazine touts savings by inviting vacationers to Escondido to “Play Golf This Weekend Without Going in the Hole.”

Escondido, Carlsbad and Oceanside have joined forces to promote North County as a tourism destination by advertising in travel magazines and producing a videotape that asks vacationers to look at the other half of San Diego County.

“If we are successful in attracting more people to the county as a destination, then the smaller communities will enjoy the spillover from selling the county as a regular destination,” said Ken Kefauver, director of tourism for the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce.

Mattson said, “You take what you have and you market it to the people it works for.”

The people it seems to work for most are those living in cold regions looking for winter shelter.

“Escondido’s climate has a great appeal, more than if you’re in an urban setting or not,” said Aimee Britten of Adventure Playground Tours in Ottawa, Canada, who says her company specializes in “unusual tours”--including ones to the Arctic Circle.

Mary Dold, tour coordinator for Golden Gate Tours in Concord in the San Francisco Bay Area, said the Lawrence Welk Resort in Escondido also provides a huge draw for senior citizens.

“They love the Lawrence Welk Resort. I had one group that was there from the Bay Area, and they were willing to take the eight-hour ride for the dinner theater and drive back,” Dold said.

Lois Anderson of 4 Seasons Vacations Inc., which also specializes in senior-citizen tours, said that, while Escondido is a nice place to visit, her clients visiting the area stay in San Diego.

“Escondido would be too small a place to stay,” Anderson said.

But the city is thinking big. Its $73-million Center for the Arts, a three-building theater and arts complex, is scheduled to be completed in 1993, and officials hope to have a full-service hotel on line by then.

Name recognition remains a problem. When tour operator Britten visited San Diego County earlier this year, she “didn’t know where the heck Escondido was.”

“It’s not a destination in itself, it’s a region that’s tacked onto another one. I don’t think it would survive very well without San Diego nearby,” Britten said.

She said Escondido’s lack of an urban setting and beach does not necessarily diminish its appeal.

“A beach is a beach is a beach,” Britten said. “There is a shift taking place in the tourism industry. It used to be people would travel for a beach, a hotel, a swimming pool, a bar and the promise of exotic human wildlife.

“That’s no longer the case, in terms of a trend. Now people go for experiences, they go for knowledge. People want to enrich their lives and go home with stories to tell, that they did something, that they learned something and that they experienced something.