Vist Slo Cal

Fy 23 was another record-setting year for tourism in Slo Cal, with tourism's economic impact to our local economy topping $2.15b in 2022. Visit Slo Cal continued to make significant strides in supporting one of the region's top economic drivers and is proud of the partnership with all of you. Our fiscal year started with a brand awareness study to assess recall of the Slo Cal brand in our key markets. We found nearly one in 10 travelers in key media markets recall seeing our ads, and 97 percent had a favorable impression. To continue our forward momentum, a $3m advertising spend was placed to promote visitation to the region. In the fall, Slo Cal hosted the visit California luxury forum, bringing 40 luxury buyers to the region from across the world. The event included 40 suppliers from throughout California and brought Slo Cal to life through 33 unique experiences, allowing us to highlight the world-class tourism product in our region to key international luxury buyers.

Through our continued advocacy efforts, visit Slo Cal cooperatively funded an independent study of the oceano dunes state vehicular recreation area with funding support provided by surrounding municipalities and invited more than 40 stakeholders to participate. The study provides 20 future-use stewardship recommendations to plan the future development, management and promotion of oceano dunes and surrounding communities should off-road vehicle use be permanently reduced or completely phased out. Visit Slo Cal commissioned a resident sentiment survey and found strong resident sentiment toward tourism, with nearly three-fourths of residents agreeing that tourism is an important part of Slo Cal's future and two-thirds stating that tourism makes their community a better place to live.

Visit Slo Cal launched Slo Cal welcome, a first-of-its-kind customer service training program developed specifically for Slo Cal's travel and tourism industry. Since the program launched in november 2022, over 700 customer-facing staff have become certified by completing the eight unique modules. In the spring, the visit Slo Cal board of directors approved the events & festivals strategy. This countywide collaborative effort provides tools and resources to assist local communities in growing midweek and off-peak visitation while maintaining and improving resident quality of life.

As fy 23 came to an end, we developed and finalized strategic direction 2026 after soliciting input from key investors, partners and stakeholders. This three-year strategy functions as visit Slo Cal's north star and provides a roadmap for work being done throughout the organization to benefit the community.