New Tourist Guide Presents County as ‘Total Destination’

The Anaheim/Orange County Visitor and Convention Bureau has just come out with its first-ever comprehensive visitor guide to the county.

The 96-page guide includes information on hotels, restaurants, attractions, shopping, sports, culture and more countywide. Nine months in the making, the magazine-style publication pulls together information that previously had been scattered among a myriad of tourist brochures and pamphlets.

Putting it all together was a logical next step and an example of the new spirit of cooperation taking root in the local tourism community, said bureau spokeswoman Elaine Cali.

“We need to look beyond individual cities and attractions, and sell Orange County as a total destination,” Cali said. “The regional approach is very powerful, and showing the entire county in one guide is an effective sales tool.”

To that end, the bureau has printed 55,000 guides targeted specifically at travel agents and tour wholesalers, while 350,000 copies will be available for visitors. The tourist copies will be distributed through Orange County hotels, visitor bureaus and other tourist hot spots.

Cali says ad revenue financed about 90% of the $300,000 cost to produce the new visitor guide. The bureau plans to update the guide annually and make it totally self-supporting through ad revenue.

To receive a free copy of the visitor guide, call (888) 598-3200, e-mail your request to mail@anaheimoc.org or write the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor and Convention Bureau at Department OVG, P.O. Box 4270, Anaheim, CA 92803.

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Marla Dickerson covers tourism for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-5670 and at marla.dickerson@latimes.com