Cultural Tourism, Preserve America and LA Travel Show

By Jeanne Orcutt

What do Chico and Tourism have in common?  The 6th Annual Cultural & Heritage Tourism Symposium!

In January I attended a very informative three-day symposium on how to “Drive tourism to your Cultural and Heritage assets” located in charming Chico. For those of you unsure of where Chico is, just think of taking the 5 Fwy north to Sacramento and keep going for another hour and a half.  There you are just below snow-capped mountains in a quaint college town with a Starbucks, but we attendees didn’t see much outside since we were there to listen and learn.  

First, let me give you background. The California Cultural & Heritage Tourism Corps (CCHTC) is the force behind this symposium and CCHTC was born in association with the California Travel and Tourism Commission (CTTC), which is the sponsor of the commercial you see on TV with different actors promoting California ending with Arnold Schwartzenegger and his wife at a table urging us to visit California. 

Here are some facts you should know:

California is the #1 tourist destination in the U.S., employs nearly 1 million people and generates a whopping $5.8 billion in state and local tax revenues. 

Don’t you think tourism is important for our economy?  It sure is!

Then, what is this ‘Cultural Heritage’ tourism and why is that important?  

Cultural Heritage is just what it sounds like, your heritage.  And since most heritage has some kind of culture, there it is!  Santa Paula has a fantastic amount of Cultural Heritage!  Now, the question is, who, besides us Santa Paulans are interested in Santa Paula’s Cultural Heritage?  Well, let me tell you who is:

Out of 118.3 million adult leisure travelers, 78% are seeking cultural heritage. That means what we have here in Santa Paula is very desirable for travelers!

Now with the recent opening of the Santa Paula Art Museum, the upcoming opening of the Museum of Ventura County Farm Museum, the Aviation Museum of Santa Paula (now located in a String of Hangers with a new exhibit space on the horizon), the stunning Murals of Santa Paula, the riveting Santa Paula Theater Center, the Santa Paula Historical Society, De Colores Arts Festival, Fandango, our beloved California Oil Museum and much, much more, there is a mind boggling amount of cultural heritage in Santa Paula!

How do we get these travelers to notice us? Well, here are some avenues we explored in our workshops: Cross promote, advertise, press releases, e-mail, newsletters are all given, but what about Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and Blogs?  It’s the best way to get information to your customers/visitors and stay connected with them.  

Think I am wrong?  3.5 billion pieces of content - billion! - are shared each week. I don’t think I am going to ignore that.

In other workshops we learned everything from how to build itineraries, resources for submitting content such as the California Tourism Website (CTTC) for free, and other very helpful websites.

The speakers during the day were superb. Dan Marriott gave a great presentation on historic roads and byways over California with a history lesson on the building of our roads. We learned how to better access, market and manage the scenic gateway routes to your community.

Richard Peterson from the California Academy of Sciences gave a wonderful presentation on how museums can use new approaches and tactics for promoting their cultural institutions with an inside look at the Academy of Sciences and all they are working towards.

We heard from Jim Conkle, the man behind the promotion of Route 66 and his passion for preserving the historic route and his inspiration to preserving an historic route in your area.  Route 66 fact:  Did you know Sammy Davis Jr. lost his eye when he fell asleep and drove off the route?

A great panel of now laid-off journalists told how they have had to change the way they work. They have had to use creativity and strategy to get the message to the masses. Some great quotes came out of this changing times such as “When the going gets weird, the weird goes pro” and “We have to be our own storytellers.”  One journalist said, “Today it is no longer ‘stories,’ it is ‘content’. It is no longer our ‘readers,’ it’s our ‘audience.’ “

Although the journalists could have been bitter, they were surviving and doing very well and willing to share their experiences of how they have adapted in this ever-changing world economic crisis and its impacts on the media.

Finally, the crescendo to these inspiring three days - where you couldn’t have thought there could be anything better than what we just attended - and to our wonderment was a man who appeared like a ray of sunshine (great analogy for California) ... our own Huell Howser, California’s ultimate promoter himself!  Speaking to us with his warm and inviting Tennessee accent, Huell reminded us of all we should be thankful for in California ... with our oceans to surf in, our mountains to ski on and our great valleys of agriculture, there is no better spot on earth. That is why more people visit California than any other state in the U.S.!  

If you have questions for me, please look me up on Facebook.  Twitter and You tube are coming soon!  Jeanne Orcutt, City of Santa Paula, California Oil Museum  805-933-0076 ext 291