Tourism/12 inches/dt1st
By WADE DANIELS
Staff Reporter
As an independence movement in the San Fernando Valley picks up steam, tourism officials have a new twist: a marketing campaign to promote the Valley as a tourist attraction in its own right.
The idea is to build the Valley’s image as a distinct destination in Southern California, a hub with a wealth of attractions in its heart and surroundings, said David Iwata, a former director of marketing for the Warner Center Marriott who was named president of the San Fernando Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau in February.
“The vision is to become a major destination in Southern California,” Iwata said. “We want the business as well as the leisure traveler.”
The core strategy of the plan, which will be unveiled in the coming weeks, involves combining different Valley destinations into packages to be marketed together.
The inventory of attractions includes Universal Studios, the Gene Autry Museum and Los Angeles Zoo in the Universal City area; Magic Mountain in Valencia; the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley; the San Fernando Mission; and the major Burbank studios such as NBC and Warner Bros.
Shopping centers such as the Northridge Fashion Center also will be included because, Iwata said, shopping is a top activity of visitors.
Rolfe Schellenberger, senior travel consultant for the Rochester, Wis.-based consulting firm Runzheimer International, was skeptical about the plan’s chances for success.
“There is potential to do something there but you can’t just make a list of a bunch of places and call yourself a destination,” Schellenberger said. “There has to be something that is the place’s signature and it has to be genuine.”
The bureau now has an annual budget of about $25,000, the bulk of which comes from dues from its members.
Iwata and the bureau’s board are planning to submit the business plan to the Los Angeles City Council, along with a request for $500,000 a year to fund the promotion efforts. The funding would come from transient occupancy taxes.
Valley-specific promotional materials will include the slogan, “Valley of the Stars,” developed by the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley with ad agency McCann-Erickson.
While the bureau hopes to secure most of its funding from the city, it also is developing a corporate program in which companies would contribute money. The idea is that bolstering tourism benefits all businesses.
Ultimately, Iwata said, a healthier tourism industry will lead to an economic ripple effect throughout the San Fernando Valley.
“More people visiting the Valley could mean more people choosing to locate their businesses or open new regional offices here,” said Iwata, a part-timer who is also co-founder and partner at LD2 Marketing Group Inc., a marketing consultancy in Woodland Hills. So far, the bureau has no other volunteer or paid staff.
