Catherine Somers has at all times needed Los Gatos to be seen as a vacationer vacation spot. However by the point the city council got here round to her imaginative and prescient—approving $88,000 final week to fund the city’s Customer and Info Heart, social media and advertising—it was too late for her and the Chamber of Commerce she oversees as govt director. Somers is stepping down on June 30, and the remainder of the Chamber’s three-person employees is about to go away this summer time.
“We have been completely shocked,” Somers mentioned of the allocation. “We weren’t even going to say something this yr due to the funds constraints. They by no means actually listened to us earlier than.”
Somers mentioned there’s no unhealthy blood between the Chamber and the council, and that the rise in funds will assist the brand new govt director, who has not but been employed, begin with a clear slate.
“With that validation and with the brand new govt director beginning right here, it actually does open the doorways for extra collaboration with the city employees,” Somers mentioned. “I believe [the town is] trying ahead to that.”
She admits that a part of the issue is that nobody has but cracked precisely the right way to market Los Gatos to vacationers.
“The technique round branding Los Gatos has at all times been somewhat ambiguous. Everybody has their very own concept,” Somers mentioned. “I believe the most important draw is the place we're located geographically: the final cease earlier than you go into the mountains earlier than the Pacific Ocean. … However you’re nonetheless on the tail finish of Silicon Valley.”
The Chamber has been advertising the city for each regional and worldwide vacationers as a top-tier wedding ceremony vacation spot and an up-and-coming wine tasting area, and has ramped up its efforts up to now few years to assist the city recuperate from the pandemic.
“I believe what it actually comes right down to is the council actually needs to try to make investments extra in vacation spot advertising, and the Chamber is the proper group to do this,” mentioned Los Gatos Mayor Maria Ristow. “Proper now we've got lots of people who come to Los Gatos, however we’re searching for that subsequent step for individuals to remain in Los Gatos. Come right here for a few days and in a single day.”
The city has given the Chamber $55,000 a yr since 2019, and this marks the primary enhance since then. The city first contracted with the Chamber to run the Customer Info Heart in 2001 with a funds of $100,526.
Tourism income dropped from $2.4 million to $700,000 after COVID broke out in 2020. The next yr, the city used American Rescue Plan Act funds to fund the Chamber particularly to spice up “emergency vacation spot advertising” in an effort to jumpstart pandemic aid and assist native companies.
Chamber occasions staffer Donna McCurrie mentioned on the Could 1 council assembly that the Chamber used these funds to rent a social media coordinator to revamp and rebrand the tourism social media channels to “Go to Los Gatos CA” in June 2021. Funds for that place ran out in January, by which period the mixed social media accounts elevated their followers from 2,700 to 9,500.
COVID funds apart, that is the primary main funds enhance for the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce in 4 years. It comes because the city faces a $3 million annual funds deficit annually for the subsequent 5 years.
City Supervisor Laurel Prevetti mentioned the city should pull from the “very tight” basic fund or make the most of leftover ARPA funds to cowl the rise.
Los Gatos’ Neighborhood Vitality Supervisor Monica Renn initially advisable the council match final yr’s $55,000 Chamber funds, however Councilmember Rob Rennie motioned so as to add $33,000 to account for inflation and a rise in vacation spot advertising.
The brand new allocation will go towards bettering the Go to Los Gatos web site and doubtlessly hiring a search engine marketing advisor, in addition to working with the final managers of native accommodations and wineries to do cross-promoting and outreach.
For Los Gatos to develop into a vacationer vacation spot, Somers mentioned, it’s obligatory for many who stay on the town to purchase into the plan.
“If residents worth their high quality of life, with a view to maintain the life-style all of us admire right here, they should have guests come and keep and store and dine as nicely,” she added.