Tourism ” arguably the largest industry in the world with people now queuing up for space travel ” is San Diego’s third-largest revenue producer behind the military and manufacturing. As we find ourselves racing to the finish line of the Memorial Day to Labor Day visitor season, all systems are go for tourism.
Hotel occupancy is 73 percent, the convention bookings are solid, San Diego is the top destination for members of the Automobile Club of Southern California, Carnival Cruise has ported its first year-round ship here and Sponge Bob Square Pants is expected to surface at Liberty Station with the construction of a Nickelodeon resort in 2010.
A benevolent benefactor, tourism improves San Diego’s quality of life by filling up the city’s coffers. The industry brought 32.2 million visitors to the region last year and this year will contribute $7.7 billion to the economy and employ 164,000 people, according to the City of San Diego and the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Visitors who stay in hotels pay a 10.5 percent transient occupancy tax (TOT) and may soon be paying more if a
2 percent increase for a Tourism Marketing District is approved. The lion’s share of the TOT, expected to reach $150 million in fiscal year 2007, goes to the general fund to pay for our most basic services including roads, parks and police. Another $10 million of the TOT is rightfully earmarked for tourism promotion (which, unfortunately, has been slashed in recent years because of the city’s fiscal woes). Other governmental entities committed to tourism’s vitality kick in, too, including the county of San Diego, which allocated $1 million in TOT in May to local visitors’ bureaus.
The San Diego Convention Center Corporation and visitors bureaus in downtown, north San Diego and east San Diego, which receive TOT funding, complement the marketing and advertising efforts of the private-sector attractions, casinos, hotels and restaurants. San Diego State University completes tourism’s hat trick of government, business and education with its Hospitality and Tourism Management Program, providing a pipeline of brains and talent for the industry’s future.
But what about the visitor? Where’s the facility that welcomes guests to California’s second-largest city and honors San Diego’s third-largest industry? Where is San Diego’s story told ” the history of its people, military, manufacturing, agriculture, surf and sea culture and even tourism? At Cabrillo National Monument, which is run by the National Park Service, visitors learn about San Diego’s history through displays, memorabilia, information and film. Elsewhere, San Diego’s visitor information offerings are disparate, geographically disconnected hubs of paid for advertising. The industry effectively drives tourists to attractions and sells tickets but falls short of its fulfillment without a respectable welcome mat.
San Diego’s International Visitor Information Center on Harbor Drive is two pre-fabricated structures pushed together, anchored in a parking lot and painted an eye-searing red and yellow. Inside the trailers, backlit ads line the walls and racks are full of more advertising.
Two school-issue three-ring white binders with menus in plastic sleeves hold copies of restaurant menus. More of the same type of information is available at the Balboa Park Visitor Center, The Convention Center, the La Jolla Information Center and the Visitor Information Center in Mission Bay, a highly visible privately owned facility that is in noticeable disrepair.
In Yosemite, a new Valley Visitor Center opened in April with an interactive display of history and nature that includes a state-of-the-art wide-screen presentation. Visitors can get information and maps and buy tickets in a center focused on history and education. The center is surrounded by businesses including a bookstore, the Ansel Adams Gallery, Yosemite Museum and Wilderness Center. The center is a collaborative effort of The Yosemite Fund, National Park Service and the Delaware North Companies, the park’s concessionaire.
Keeping an eye on tourism’s future in San Diego, and building a centrally located visitor center to educate, inform and even entertain, would help San Diego maintain its edge in an industry that is now out of this world. The harbor front ” with visitors arriving via air and sea ” is just one prime location. Even Sponge Bob could appreciate having a place to learn something about his new home.
” Patricia M. Walsh is a freelance journalist for the San Diego Community Newspaper Group.