Mission, Bureau Team to Promote Tourism

Proving it’s never too early to investigate ways to boost revenue, the San Fernando Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau is teaming with the San Fernando Mission in anticipation of the mission’s 200th anniversary next September.

In addition to promoting the anniversary, officials hope to reestablish the mission as a key Valley tourist destination and landmark.

Joan McClellan, the bureau’s executive director, envisions a refurbished, well-marked mission alongside a special building aimed at Valley visitors.

“When people come into the Valley, they don’t see anything that tells them, ‘Come stay in the Valley,’ ” she said. There is an existing building near the mission that the bureau is considering for a visitor’s center.

The mission effort is part of a push to “carve out an even bigger piece of the tourism pie,” according to a convention bureau statement. The money spent by tourists in the Valley accounts for just 12% of the $7 billion pumped annually into the Southland economy, state figures show.

One specific goal already agreed upon by mission and tourism officials is the installation of new signs pointing out the site to motorists on nearby freeways and streets.

“Right now you can drive by the mission and have no clue that it’s even there,” McClellan said.

Restoration work on mission buildings that were seriously damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake is nearing completion. Work on the main building is scheduled to be finished in March or April. The “convento” part of the mission, which McClellan called “the first hotel in the Valley,” will reopen early next year.

Specific details of the September festivities are far from complete, McClellan said, but organizers are already putting together a guest list that includes people with historical and familial ties to the mission.