Setting up shop for beach-bound tourists

Alicia Robinson

A good place to seek people who might visit Newport Beach is away

from the city, the city’s travel experts have found.

City promoters are drumming up potential business travel through a

one-person satellite office of the conference and visitors bureau in

San Francisco and two outside marketing firms with offices in

Washington, D.C., as well as Chicago, Denver and Houston.

“We know that they’re instrumental in bringing in about 30% of our

leads,” Newport Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau Executive

Director Marta Hayden said. “We [could] try to deploy someone by

flying them out to these cities, [but] realistically, we could do it

just a few times a year. These people are there all the time.”

The satellite office was established about 18 months ago, and the

lead generating firms have been used for a number of years, and both

ventures have shown success, as Hayden recently reported to the City

Council. In the 2003-04 fiscal year, the office provided leads worth

about $13 million that resulted in more than $1 million in hotel-room

revenue.

Last fiscal year’s marketing budget for the bureau was about

$766,000.

Many tourism bureaus keep satellite offices or use outside firms

to get a leg up on the increasing competition for travel customers,

tourism industry experts agreed.

Having a San Francisco office is a way to tap into the lucrative

travel market coming from Northern California, said Jack Kyser, chief

economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development

Corporation, a private nonprofit group focused on attracting jobs to

the region.

Last year, Southern California hosted 2.3 million visitors from

the Bay Area, he said.

“It’s getting to be very competitive out there,” he said. “You

have a lot of destinations that are competing for both the business

traveler and the casual traveler.”

The Anaheim/Orange County Visitors and Convention Bureau also uses

outside marketing firms, and for the Newport bureau, it’s a good way

to maximize a small budget, Anaheim bureau President Charles Ehlers

said.

“[Newport Beach is] not a big bureau, but it’s a pretty

significant destination,” he said. “They’re a player that’s bigger

than a small market.”

Hotel operators said while they do see some business generated by

the bureau’s leads, travelers find them in a variety of ways.

“It’s a mix, and we get a lot of repeat business,” Balboa Bay Club

& Resort spokeswoman Maggie Feldman said.

For example, the club netted a recent fundraiser luncheon for

Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards because the

Democratic Foundation of Orange County has held smaller lunches

there.

The Balboa Bay Club hosts conferences that can draw up to 400

guests, so the efforts of the conference and visitors bureau can help

land those, Feldman said.

“Specifically from the bureau, we get a few leads,” said Brion

Amendt, general manager of the Newport Channel Inn. “For the most

part, the big leads are usually more for the larger hotels.”

He added that the inn does get overflow business from big

conferences, and when people come to the city for business and decide

to stay for pleasure, they often choose the inn.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.