CVC - The Hub for an Integrated Tourism Strategy in Santa Cruz
Tourism in Santa Cruz
Tourism in Santa Cruz began in the early 20th century with tourists making their way from San Francisco due to the access created by the building of a railroad initially built to export timber out of the county. These were very prosperous times but the area fell into decline due to the growing popularity of travel by air and car.
However, due to a focused and well organized tourism strategy Santa Cruz County now boasts over 500 million dollars in revenue per year adding 14 million dollars to the tax base. If we include the benefits to local small businesses, promotion of the arts, and the resulting sustainability of the local culture, including the preservation and restoration of the local landscape and environment, the benefits are incalculable.
To achieve this success there is one important point to mention. The approach was not to merely work to benefit the tourism sector only. Rather the objective was to build a community consensus over a long period of time whereby, not only the tourist business, but the entire community agreed to build their community and tourism around the concept of the Santa Cruz 'uniqueness', hospitality, and warmth. 
The CVC is one of a very few examples of a local NPO starting off its activities by first involving the local government in its deliberations. Moreover, in order to pass on a sense of pride regarding the Santa Cruz 'uniqueness' and warm hospitality to the next generation, each school has a program to help children share their pride in their community with tourists and visitors.
During these 15 years the Santa Cruz County Conference and Visitors Council (CVC) has played an important role overseeing tourist promotion. Firstly, 65% of the CVC annual budget is procured from the private sector. For that reason, CVC is impelled to build such a system that will deliver and bring positive results.
As a 'gateway' to Santa Cruz County, in collaboration with marketing professionals, the CVC operates a portal site and provides real time information throughout the region regarding accommodation, event tickets, concerts, conferences, weddings, as well as reservations for the local amusement parks. Presently, the amount paid for Google Pay Per Click is about $5000,000 per year.
CVC hired a professional with marketing, advertising, and sales experience and uses part of their budget to publish an annual Santa Cruz Travellers Guide.
They also organized the Santa Cruz Film Commission and put major resources towards attracting the film industry and international conferences to the area.
On the other hand, they also went to the streets to interview tourists about their experience in order to better understand the target market. They also sought feedback via local accommodation providers, magazines, and the internet using surveys to get plenty of feedback in order to build a solid tourism strategy based on the information they collect and to determine whether their attempts at improvement were working or not.
Presently, CVC is drawing visitors to Santa Cruz not only to draw people to the beaches and amusement parks, but also attract visitors to Santa Cruz to enjoy cultural activities, conferences, music, and even weddings. Specifically, that are engaging in targeted promotion and are aiming at making Santa Cruz a cultural and eco-tourism destination.
- Actively measures the regional economic cycles, supply and demand, and employment
- Receives about one third of its 1 million budget from the City of Santa Cruz
- Has hired an SEO professional to ensure CVC is at the top of Google when people are searching the net about Santa Cruz with a budget of about $5000 a month
- Commissions companies to attract people to Santa Cruz using the full power of the internet
- Handles reservations for accommodation, ticketing for events and concerts, as well as for wedding events and amusement parks
- Issues an annual Travelers Guide that is completely supported by advertising revenue
- Employs a professional marketing professional to target corporate business
- Manages mailing lists which keep the clients and communities updated with the latest information
- Allows visitors and clients to download and print brochures from their web site
- Since one of the 'C's in the CVC name stands for 'conference' this reflects the focus on attracting international conferences and conventions to the area.
- Since there is always a wide variety of events going on in Santa Cruz at any given time they have started disseminating information about events at local accommodation providers, like motels and hotels.
- Aims to attract people not only for the beaches and amusements but also to hold conferences, enjoy the culture and music as well as cater to the wedding market
- Is actively attracting the movie industry which has a significant impact on tourist while filming and after the film is shown and the Santa Cruz Film Commission aims to make it very attractive and convenient for movie makers to film in Santa Cruz
- Gathers regular feedback from visitors throughout the year
- Confirms whether its objectives and improvements are working by using street surveys, interviews, as well as surveys at accommodation providers, magazines, the internet
- Places advertisements in high class publications and magazines as part of their branding strategy
- Has featured articles in a variety of different media and employs one professional promoter to handle this.
- Cooperates with local schools to offer programs so that children, can have pride in their city and explain all about when they meet tourists and visitors.
- Holds to the belief and purpose that their role is to defend the community and unique consciousness of the area, not just for tourism, but to ensure a sustainable community for the next generation
