Tourism Experts Urge United Effort to Market County

Ventura County is already full of cultural and historic sites to attract tourists, but local civic leaders need to cooperate to better market those attractions--and the county, according to experts who spoke at a tourism forum Wednesday.

And, they pointed out, tourism is a means of economic development that brings many dollars but few permanent residents, an appealing feature for the county’s slow-growth advocates.

Cultural and tourism leaders from across the county--representing museums, visitors bureaus and government--met to discuss how Ventura County and its cities can capitalize on “cultural tourism,” a movement that seeks to attract high-end visitors through marketing an area’s culture and history.

Cultural tourists tend to spend more and stay longer, a combination that makes them among the most-desired visitors in the industry.

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Sitting outdoors on the future campus of Cal State Channel Islands, about 120 people listened as two consultants discussed what Ventura County is now doing to promote itself as a cultural tourist destination and what more could be done.

The forum was hosted by the Economic Development Collaborative of Ventura County, which seeks to bring leaders in various industries together.

Consultant Kathleen Brown, who will soon move to Ventura County from Florida, said the cultural tourism movement emerged out of a shift in visitors’ preferences between the ‘80s and ‘90s.

Getting off the beaten path, visiting historical sites and understanding an area’s culture rank significantly higher when today’s tourists are asked why they take a vacation.

This attitudinal shift represents “a shift from escapism in the ‘80s to enrichment in the ‘90s,” in part brought on by Americans’ higher education levels and an aging population, Brown said.

“This is the kind of tourist that is most beneficial to your tourism program,” Brown said, “because they are affluent, they are likely to go to a whole range of programs and activities and they like to stay in hotels, which adds to your bed-tax profits.”

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The first step in developing a countywide plan for cultural tourism is the distribution of a survey to Ventura County’s visitors to gauge who they are, where they came from, what they did, how much money they spent and what they spent it on.

Ed Robings, director of the Ventura County Museum of History and Art, said the questionnaires will be given out at museums, hotels and visitors bureaus from Ojai to Thousand Oaks during the next year, with the data to be broken down by season.

Once the results are tallied, the job of promoting the area will begin in earnest.

“We must get the word out that we have more than beaches and a good climate,” Robings said.

Heritage Valley, the new name for the region that includes several of the west county’s smaller cities and much of its citrus farmland, is already beginning to market itself as a destination.

Mary Litzinger of Vintage Productions in Simi Valley discussed the strategies of the local visitors bureau, which she has been hired to help develop.

From the Union Oil Museum in Santa Paula to the Fillmore & Western Railroad, the future Heritage Valley visitors bureau will promote the area’s small-town appeal to travel agents, tour organizers and tourists.

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Plus, Litzinger said, the job of selling the valley and its attractions will not be limited to the bureau.

“We’re going to make Heritage Valley salespeople out of everybody who works in the Heritage Valley,” she said.

The cultural tourist wants an authentic experience, not a commercial version of history. For Litzinger, when athletes like Mark McGwire are asked where they are headed after their victory, she doesn’t want to hear “Disney World.”

“I think he needs to say ‘the Heritage Valley.’ ”