Tourism’s mixed bag

Dave Brooks

Racing down Pacific Coast Highway, 24-year-old Andrew Samuels is

doing his best to make it to one of Huntington Beach’s best surfing

spots -- the pier.

Samuels joins a common and increasingly frustrating frenzy

Downtown -- the race for parking.

“If you don’t get here before all the tourists file in, you’ll

never find a spot to park,” he said.

Samuels’ schedule only allows him to pursue his hobby on summer

weekends, a time when the city is filed near capacity with tourists

and visitors for beach events and fun in the sun.

He is one of many residents who is seeing his own interactions

with the city change as Huntington Beach moves toward becoming a

popular overnight tourist destination.

This summer was a banner year for the city’s tourism industry,

reports Doug Traub, president and chief executive of the Huntington

Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau.

Surf City’s lodging industry grossed nearly $8 million during June

and July, up 15% from last year and more than double what it earned a

year before, according to hotel tax information.

That’s great news for Surf City coffers, which are banking on

developing tourism revenue as the driving force to alleviate past

budget woes. But some wonder if the rapid drive toward attracting

tourism is outpacing the city’s own basic infrastructure

requirements.

“Parking, parking, parking. That’s all that people talk about down

here when it comes to tourism,” said longtime resident Jake Gabriel,

a frequent visitor to Downtown. “We are parking obsessed, and with

good reason. This is a major problem, but its not going to be fixed

with a short-term solution and it’s not an end all. I think the

bigger question is, ‘Has this push toward tourism improved the

overall quality of life in Huntington Beach?’”

Parking Director Steven Benson said tourism-related parking is

helping to generate about $500,000 a month for the general fund in

the summer, up 30% from last year because of a subsequent increase in

fees.

The push toward tourism has also led to the influx of new high-end

businesses Downtown, including the soon-to-be-constructed mixed use

projects, Pacific City and the Strand.

“I don’t think the local market could support those alone,” Traub

said.

Instead, his agency has been working on bringing in overnight

guests, often the highest revenue-generating consumers in a tourism

market. This year, the bureau has spent more than $100,000

advertising Huntington Beach, Traub said, marketing in regional

publications that stretch as far north as San Francisco and as far

east as Las Vegas and Phoenix.

The city has also launched a website that he estimates receives

between 40,000 to 60,000 hits a month. Traub has been doing public

relations work with media outside of the Huntington Beach, helping it

to earn distinctions in several publications including its recent

crowning as “best place to visit for families with teenagers,” in the

New York Post.

“We’re definitely beginning to show up on more people’s radar

screens,” he said.

Tourists, polled by the bureau, are also concerned about the

city’s lack of parking, overcrowding and Downtown cleanliness --

issues the city will need to address if it wants to continue to

generate dollars from tourists, Traub said.

“I think its an essential direction for our city to take because

we don’t get as much money as we should through sales tax,”

Councilman Dave Sullivan said.

Although tourism revenues fluctuate with the economy, Sullivan

said the city can rely on one constant.

“We will always have our great weather,” he said.

* DAVE BROOKS covers City Hall. He can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at dave.brooks@latimes.com.