eSource 04/30/2008 | Sonoma County

Spring Tourism Forum May 15: Foodies, E-marketing, Gay/Lesbian, Annual Report
Research Info Special Sneak-Peek
Booking Engine Announces New Program for Smaller Properties
Visitor Center Workshops May 6

Inside the Beltway: Selling Sonoma Country
Sonoma Country in the Second City: Chicago
Emerald City Meets Sonoma Country

Windsor Coffee Klatch Wrap-Up
Deadline: Submit events for printed calendar by May 22
PR Team Hits Vegas. Sin City Barely Survives.
Media Opportunities

Going to Land's End to Promote Sonoma Country
Las Vegas Air Service Begins

SCTB Info

May 15 - Spring Tourism Forum; Industry Experts, Breakfast and You
The Annual Spring Tourism Forum is slated for Thursday, May 15 from 7:30 am to 10:30 am, and features complimentary breakfast paired perfectly with tourism industry experts.

The event, to be held at the DoubleTree Hotel Sonoma Wine Country in Rohnert Park, will feature speakers on:

•   Culinary Tourism and how to tap into the devoted "foodie market"
•   E-Tourism Panel: Search-engine optimization, e-marketing for tourism businesses, determining ROI, best practices, and customer relationship management
•   The Gay and Lesbian Tourism Market- What it is and how to target it

The Sonoma County Economic Development Board will also release their Annual Tourism Report, detailing the state of the industry and reflecting new research.

Seating for this free event is limited, and last year's event sold out.

Register online here or by emailing research@sonomacounty.com or calling 707-522-5800.

Special Sneak Peek at the Numbers
For all the lodging, tasting room and visitor centers that participated in the 2007-2008 research with zip code submissions and completed visitor surveys, there will be a "sneak peek" of the results presented by David Bratton of Destination Analysts. Invitations to those who returned completed surveys have already been sent.

Thanks to all who helped with the research this year. As we are gather better information about who is visiting Sonoma Country and what their motivations are for travel, the SCTB will be able to better tailor sales, marketing and PR efforts to bring more people to Sonoma Country.

The more involvement we get from more properties and businesses, the better the SCTB will be able to reach your audience.

To participate in ongoing research, please email research@sonomacounty.com to sign up.

Booking Engine Announces New Program for Smaller Properties
Advanced Reservation Systems, or ARES, the vendor that handles the online booking engine for www.sonomacounty.com, is working on an innovative program to accommodate smaller and non-GDS properties with more efficient payment of bookings. The SCTB requested this change to the ARES model on behalf of our community partners, and they obliged.

The SCTB is unique among destination marketing organizations in that we have waived our revenue share on lodging bookings, passing along the savings to the accommodation.

To date, the booking engine has brought in more than 200 room nights for BIA properties, with a published room total of over $35,000.

For more information please contact Justin Stratford, ARES Northern California Market Manager, justin.stratford@aresdirect.com, 415-227-2621.

Visitor Center Workshops
On May 6 from 9am - 1pm, visitor center staff and volunteers are invited to the spring workshop titled "Sharing our Tourism Pride & Joys" at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel and Spa in Santa Rosa. This free workshop is for visitor center staff to learn more about visitor attractions in other areas while those areas learn more about you.

Information shared will include updates on the historic trail, the exceptional customer service pilot program, and the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau website. Also, presentations from the visitor centers on the five reasons to visit their area, and a group workshop activity on developing itineraries.

Morning coffee and lunch will be served.

To sign up, please RSVP by Friday, May 2 to Wendy Peterson at wendypeterson@sonomavalley.com, or by calling 707-996-1090 x106.

Sales

Inside the Beltway: Selling Sonoma Country
Jamie Graham and Marta Hayden of the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau hosted a client event earlier this month at Sonoma Restaurant in Washington DC. Meeting planners were attending the "Springtime in the Park" tradeshow held annually in the nation's capital, and the SCTB sales team invited some key planners to a private function at the aptly-named restaurant.

The SCTB effectively sold Sonoma Country as a viable destination for the government, association and trade groups represented at the event and the sales team will continue to build on interest from the D.C. market for future business.

Sonoma Country in the Second City: Chicago
Barb Quigley sold Sonoma Country at the Affordable Meetings: Mid America show held in Chicago. Put on by the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International, the event drew more than 1,000 delegates, and Sonoma Country received many leads with RFP potential. The City of Big Shoulders is a major market for meetings and leisure business and the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau has an office there to sell Sonoma Country year-round.

Emerald City Meets Sonoma Country
As you read this, members of the SCTB sales team are in Seattle, selling Sonoma Country to members of Meeting Planners International, Washington Chapter. They are also completing sales calls, reminding clients that Sonoma Country is the perfect destination for meetings, especially with daily direct flights.

PR, Marketing and Partnerships

"Meet the Tourism Bureau" in Windsor: Wrap-Up
Tourism businesses from Windsor, Healdsburg, Forestville and the Sonoma Valley came to the SCTB coffee klatch in Windsor on April 15.

Attendees learned how to leverage the $4 million reach of the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau to attract customers to their businesses, including how to sell rooms, tickets, activities and packages on the website and how to use the sales and public relations teams to represent their business.

The SCTB also presented the basics of the meetings and group tour sales programs, including information about the successful incentive program that is bringing in midweek business to BIA properties.

Detailing the new website, the SCTB showed how wedding, meetings and group tour leads are generated, and also how to register events for the online and printed calendar of events. (Hint: you can do it here)

The next SCTB public forum is the May 15 Spring Tourism Forum at the DoubleTree Hotel Sonoma Wine Country in Rohnert Park. See info on sign-ups and speaker above.

Deadline: Submit events for printed calendar by May 22
It's calendar time again. Submit your events for inclusion in our online and quarterly calendar of events. Deadline for inclusion in printed calendar of events is May 22.

PR Team Hits Vegas. Sin City Barely Survives
Crack PR and Marketing Manager Keri Hanson headed off to Las Vegas prior to the April 24 launch of direct flights and dazzled the travel, wine and lifestyle media with stories of Sonoma Country. Appearing on a national radio show, Keri's details of how America's premier wine, spa and coastal destination is so appealing, the host requested a visit in person. Keri followed that up with lunches with lifestyle magazines and newspaper travel editors.

The Public Relations team has been targeting existing markets throughout the year, and is building on buzz over the new air service to sell Sonoma Country to Las Vegans as well as those who transit through from points east.

Media Opportunities:
A nationally syndicated wine and food radio show out of Las Vegas seeks wineries to be featured. A distributor or representative from the winery would need to be present during the live broadcast of the show from Las Vegas. For more information, contact Keri Hanson, PR and Marketing Manager at khanson@sonomacounty.com.

VIA Magazine is seeking info on notable 2009 anniversaries, specifically major milestones such as 50 or 100 or 150 years. If your winery, hotel, city, or other tourism-related entity is celebrating a significant anniversary, contact Keri Hanson, who is celebrating her 2-year SCTB anniversary and loving every minute of it, at khanson@sonomacounty.com. Deadline for submission is May 5 at high noon.

Odds and Ends:

Going to Land's End to Promote Sonoma Country
It's the middle of July and the temperature is 92 and you break out in a sweat just thinking about walking to your car. You start sorting through the mail on your desk and there it is, your mental vacation, your escape -- the Land's End Business Outfitters fall catalog.

You flip through it, trying to remember what a cool fall breeze feels like when ... what was that? You do a double-take and, yes, that shirt has a "Sonoma Country" logo embroidered on it.

Land's End contacted SCTB to use the logo on clothing for the fall catalog, free of charge. The company's catalogs feature logos of their business customers embroidered on Lands' End apparel. They were reviewing logos and thought "Sonoma Country" would "add visual interest to our catalog. We feature large and small organizations, from Fortune 500's to the smallest Christmas tree farm."

As for impact, the catalog is shipped to businesses across the US, as well as Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Las Vegas Air Service Begins
Elvis in Railroad Square, showgirls slurp chowder in Bodega Bay and Wayne Newton spotted at the Occidental farmers market: air service from Las Vegas has begun. The SCTB toasted the inaugural flight April 24 and members of the SCTB board and staff headed to Las Vegas to promote Sonoma Country and the direct daily flights. The Horizon Air service opens up Sonoma Country as a destination for meetings, tour and travel and leisure visitors from Las Vegas or from connecting airports.
HORIZO~1

L: SCTB President and CEO Ken Fischang with Charles M. Schulz Airport General Manager John Stout. R: SCTB's Marta Hayden with the Hunka Hunka Burning Love a.k.a Elvis.