Visitor center activity picks up

The area has seen a noticeable increase in visitors this past summer, according to local tourism officials.

This could be partially due to advertising efforts by the local Visitors Bureau, officials said, or that people simply chose to save money by traveling closer to home.

An indicator that Del Norte County had a better tourism season this year over last is the number of people who came into visitor centers looking for information.

Almost 50 percent more people came into the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce’s visitor center at the Cultural Center this summer, said Gina Zottola, executive director for the chamber.

Between June and September, more than 12,000 people stopped in for information about the area, Zottola said.

Redwood National and State Parks visitor centers saw 12 percent more people walk through its doors this year, said Debbie Savage, a supervising park ranger.

From July to September, 27,000 people stopped at the parks’ visitor center in Crescent City, and 28,000 came into the one in Hiouchi.

Closer to the end of summer, sales at the visitor centers were also up, Nolan said, which means people were more comfortable buying a book or souvenir to take home.

In addition, more people participated in the parks’ guided walks, Nolan said.  That indicates more people not only traveled to the area, but spent more time here, he explained.

“They took the time to enjoy the special places we have here,” he said. “There was a noticeable change in character — people were willing to allocate their time.”

Where they came from

The majority of visitors to Redwood National and State Parks were from California, Oregon and Washington, Savage said, but the parks also get a lot of international travelers.

Those coming from overseas tend to come in the fall before the rainy season sets in because they think there won’t be a lot of people in the parks this time of year, Savage said.

“We’re staying very busy to the middle of November,” she said.

Zottola also said that many people chose to travel by car this summer.

“People are comfortable doing trips by car versus flying to a foreign country or destination spot,” she said.

But people from all over the U.S. and also a lot from Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand came into the visitor center at the Cultural Center this summer, she said.

Tamera Leighton, the director of the Visitors Bureau, said that advertising has been directed at people within a 200-mile radius of Del Norte because those people are more likely to make the trek here for a long weekend.

“That’s the best market right now,” she said, “somebody who wants to take a vacation, but doesn’t have a lot of money to spend.”

What they are looking for

“Most of the people want to see the redwoods,” Zottola said, or they come for specific events like Fourth of July or Sea Cruise.

In talks with visitors, she said that many came because they have never seen the famous giant trees or saw them as a child with their parents and now want to show them to their children.

Once they “walk through the door,” Zottola said, that gives the staff at the visitor center a chance to “promote everything else,” from the Smith and Klamath rivers to beaches and tourist-friendly places like Trees of Mystery or Ocean World.

Those from far flung parts of the country or world are learning about Del Norte just by surfing the Web for “redwoods” or “Northern California,” Zottola said, and finding the Chamber of Commerce’s or Visitors Bureau’s Web sites.

“Advertising, that’s huge,” she said “Without advertising, it could be hard to find us.”

The Visitors Bureau has been advertising on its Web site and in newspapers and the radio in Southern Oregon and Northern California, promoting all the things there are to do here on the “cool coast,” Leighton said.

“Our job is getting the next, new visitor,” she said. “That’s what the Visitors Bureau does.”

Advertising in Sunset Magazine’s September issue also sparked an interest in Del Norte, Leighton said. Included in the magazine are response  cards that readers can fill out asking for more information about a particular area, she explained.

Many people who asked for information on Del Norte that comes from the Chamber of Commerce then requested even more material and were willing to pay for it, Leighton said.

Zottola said the chamber received 556 requests for information from Sunset Magazine readers.

How to get them to come back

The Visitors Bureau would like to continue advertising in Sunset to stimulate more interest in Del Norte, Leighton said.

Sunset is a monthly magazine that showcases travel destinations in the American West.

Continuous advertising will bring people — as it did this summer — to Del Norte, she said. Many communities on the coast had a bleak tourism season this year, unlike here, she added.

“The key is long-term sustained funding for advertising,” Leighton said. “That will continue to move the community forward.”

Simply having redwoods in Del Norte is not going to bring the tourists in, Leighton said, they have to be reminded that this is the place to come to see them.

“First and foremost, we have something here,” she said, “but just having something isn’t enough to let people know that we have something here.”

However, the Visitors Bureau needs money to buy advertising.

It has requested $245,000 per year from the city and county, which is about 20 percent of each agency’s Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) revenue, Leighton said.

The bureau has received $15,750 from the county for the first quarter of the 2009-2010 fiscal year, and the city also recently pledged $50,000.

Hotels, RV parks and vacation rentals within city limits collect a 10 percent TOT from travelers.

City Manager Rod Butler said he will know exactly how much TOT was generated in the first quarter — July, August and September — by the middle of this month.

That dollar figure will indicate whether those businesses had a good tourist season or not. Zottola heard good news from business owners and said that “most had a pretty good season.”

“We’re interested in those numbers,” Butler said. “That’s the biggest quarter of the year (for TOT). We’ll see how it trends compared to last year.”

Next summer could see more tourists as the economy continues to recover and people are drawn to Del Norte’s natural beauty.

Zottola suspects that recent exposure from an article in National Geographic about redwoods and Crescent City’s designation as one of the 20 prettiest towns in the U.S. by www.ForbesTraveler.com will attract more tourists.

Leighton said it’s important to continue advertising to prepare for next summer — many people plan their vacation during the winter.

“People will not forget if they see us regularly throughout the year,” she said, adding that advertising has “helped us hold our own. We have to help people remember that Del Norte County is on the map.”