Tourism Panel Finds Right Climate for Ads

A year after launching the Costa Mesa Tourism and Promotion Council, local officials say they think visitors are waking up to the fact that Anaheim is not Orange County’s only tourist destination.

“We’ve had some good successes so far,” said Emmett Steed, president of the council.

Hotels’ business, for example, is on the rise after a marketing campaign enticing visitors with promises of temperate weather and first-class entertainment and shopping, Steed said.

During the winter, bus signs and newspaper advertisements were placed in Portland, Ore., and Seattle touting Costa Mesa’s proximity to the coast, warm weather and excellent shopping opportunities.

Steed said the campaign was a success. The group surveyed sun-starved Oregonians and Washingtonians before and after the campaign and found that 13% of the population was familiar with Costa Mesa at the end of the advertising blitz. Before then, only 6% had heard of it.

Once summer arrives, the campaign will take a different tack: to lure visitors from relentlessly sunny states such as Arizona to the milder coastal climate.

Local hoteliers seem to think the promotions are working, Steed said, because they have more weekend guests than in years past.

At the same time, Costa Mesa has seen a 12% increase in revenue from hotel taxes since the council was established.