VENTURA : City to Consider Tourism Efforts

Hoping to lure more tourists to Ventura, city leaders tonight will consider intensifying marketing and promotion efforts.

The Ventura City Council will consider a plan that would have the city work more closely with the Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau, Harbor Merchants Assn., downtown merchants and other groups to develop and coordinate special events and cultural activities.

A trolley, walking tours and cultural events are proposed to be established to draw more visitors, and marketing and promotion of Ventura’s tourist attractions would be increased. The plan would concentrate on Ventura Harbor, downtown and beach areas.

According to a city staff report, the tourism plan would not require new funding but would better coordinate what is already being done by various tourist-oriented agencies in the city. In other business, the City Council tonight will consider giving $325,100 to three agencies that help boost tourism.

If approved, the Visitors and Convention Bureau would receive $268,350 for the rest of the 1993-94 fiscal year. The Ventura County Museum of History and Art would receive $32,750, and the Ventura Arts Council would receive $24,000. None of the groups is considered a city agency, but a substantial amount of their budgets traditionally come from the city.

The Ventura Arts Council, which received about $96,000 from the city last year, will have its funding cut because it is providing fewer services to the city, said Councilman Todd Collart, co-founder of the 12-year-old Arts Council.

The private, nonprofit Arts Council had to close the Momentum Gallery in January because it was in debt and could not afford to keep the gallery running. If city funding is approved, the gallery would be reopened, and the Arts Council would raise matching funds, according to a city staff report.