Costa Mesa, in Bid for Tourists, Becomes ‘Destination’

Anaheim has Disneyland and the Angels. Laguna Beach has a picturesque arts community and a vibrant night life. Newport Beach has wealth and the beach, and Costa Mesa has . . . Costa Mesa has . . .

Well, it may not have a major theme park or the glitz and cachet of some Orange County cities, but in a major push to lure more tourists, Costa Mesa is touting itself as a destination.

In ads that range from warm to witty, the city is aggressively trying to persuade outsiders of the charms of central Orange County.

“Our tagline is, ‘It’s a multi-fascinating place,’ ” said Debra Vasswani of the Costa Mesa Tourism and Promotion Council. The city typically has about 400,000 overnight visitors annually and hopes to significantly increase that number. “We want people in L.A. or Santa Barbara who want to get away for a couple of days to say, ‘Hey, I think I’ll go to Costa Mesa.’ ”

The message may not have gotten through yet.

“Costa Mesa actually has a visitors bureau?” was the surprised inquiry from Cathy Janega-Dykes, sales director at the Santa Barbara Conference and Visitors Bureau, a well-oiled machine that annually lures 7 million people from around the world.

But Janega-Dykes said Costa Mesa is marketable, with its gigantic shopping mall and award-winning South Coast Repertory Theater.

“It’s a wonderful location, because when I look at Costa Mesa, I think of Newport Beach and the whole area as part of it,” she said. “And the shopping really is great. Whenever I’m in Orange County, I definitely hit the South Coast Plaza [in Costa Mesa] and Fashion Island [in Newport Beach].”

Plans for the campaign began about two years ago but did not take off in earnest until this year, said John Gilbert, vice president of the council and general manager of the Westin South Coast Plaza.

So far, the tourism council has targeted broiling Phoenix with beat-the-heat ads and dissed Seattle and Portland, Ore., as “Sunshine Impaired.” In March, a council ad in Variety invited the Academy Awards to make its home at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Costa Mesa has much to offer, Gilbert said, and the council’s job is to let the world know about it.

“Costa Mesa is a destination that’s been forgotten about in the big scheme of Orange County, and our goal is to bring it the awareness that it deserves,” he said.

How well the effort is working is hard to measure, Gilbert said, but calls to the tourism council’s information line have increased in the last few months.

The new advertising effort, begun in June, is a series of spots on the KABC-AM (790) morning drive show.

Each week, someone wins one weekend night in a Costa Mesa hotel, and for Father’s Day the tourism council sponsored a promotion awarding a $3,000 weekend in the city for two.

A 12-year-old boy from Sierra Madre, who called with touching comments about the single father raising him, won them a weekend at South Coast Plaza, free meals at local restaurants and a $1,000 shopping spree.

The Jacobses never had been to Costa Mesa. “Well, we never really had any reason to go before,” said Clint Jacobs, the father. But the pair had a blast while visiting.

“We hated to go home,” he said. “But the way they’re promoting it in those ads on KABC is just right--it’s a great place to relax. It’s like a getaway within a getaway.”