Tourism pros converge on Newport

Stefanie Frith

NEWPORT BEACH -- Forget planning a vacation where all you do is lay on

the beach. Nowadays, people want adventure. They want to climb mountains.

Go exploring. They want to take cooking classes in Italy.

The future of tourism, as well as what people want when they plan a

vacation, were discussed this week during the California Conference on

Tourism. The conference ran Monday through Thursday at the Hyatt

Newporter.

More than 500 tourism professionals attended the conference, which was

sponsored by the California Travel Industry Assn. and California Tourism

and was hosted by the Newport Beach Conference & Visitors Bureau.

It was the first time in 10 years that the conference has taken place

in Southern California.

“[The association] was looking to do something different and were

thinking of other areas like Riverside,” said Bridget Lindquist, director

of travel industry sales for the Newport Beach Conference & Visitors

Bureau. “We had the representatives come down [from Sacramento] back in

1999 and Newport was just a natural choice. Everything is here. It’s

beautiful.”

Lindquist also said that Newport Beach was a natural place to have to

have the conference because so many tourism professionals work out of

Southern California.

During the seminars, which were led by tourism professionals from all

over the state, Lindquist said the main ideas discussed mainly dealt with

how much tourism has changed thanks to the baby boomer generation.

“It used to be that vacations were for relief and relaxing,” she said.

“Now people want a more enriching experience. The baby boomers are

compressing everything into their vacations. When they play, they want to

learn.”

Lindquist said that vacations are also changing, with more people

taking quick getaways instead of weeklong trips.

“It’s hard to get away from work now, so they are taking shorter,

three- and four-day trips,” she said.

In addition to the workshops, the new state of California advertising

travel campaign slogan was announced. This year, look for advertisements

that say “California, Find Yourself Here.”

“It’s important to get people to come in and use the hotels and spend

money,” Lindquist said. “Whether it’s for business or leisure, any travel

is good travel. Everything will help our city.”