Local restaurateurs, hotel managers, vintners, business owners, sports and recreation enthusiasts, City officials and others who stand to benefit from more visitors to Morgan Hill put their heads together for ideas on how to increase tourism at a recent a half-day session.
Ideas floated at the first-ever Morgan Hill Tourism Forum at Mama Mia’s restaurant April 18 ranged from the broad and all-encompassing (improving “cross promotion” and developing technology-based “community calendar”) to the specific (re-opening the Granada Theater, an artificial wake-boarding park and a winery shuttle service).
About 80 people attended the forum, according to Morgan Hill Economic Development Director Edith Ramirez.
“It is obvious this is of great interest to a wide range of community groups and organizations,” Ramirez said. “Now that we have heard from local experts and community members, we are going to enhance the effort by hearing from outside experts on their perspective, and how other successful wine regions came together to market those areas as tourism destinations.”
The forum was touted by many attendees as an encouraging leap toward improving economic development in Morgan Hill. It was the first effort in recent memory, according to several attendees, to bring that many local and often otherwise competing interests together to devise a plan, strategy or idea to promote Morgan Hill as a destination for outsiders.
But Mayor Steve Tate noted that it’s even more important that those interested in increasing tourism maintain the enthusiasm they displayed at last week’s forum – “so we don’t lose any momentum.” City officials plan to convene at least a committee representing those at the forum for a follow-up meeting within the next month, preferably at a local winery.
Those attending seemed to recognize that promoting Morgan Hill as a whole brings profit and exposure to individual businesses.
“We have to be aggressive in our approach, and market each other,” Morgan Hill Holiday Inn Express Manager David Dworkin said.
Last year, the City gained about $1 million in revenue from the transient occupancy (hotel) tax, Dworkin said.
“If you get more tourism, you get more heads and beds, and you get more money,” Dworkin said.
And the City collected about $6.9 million in sales tax revenue during the 2011-2012 fiscal year.
Hotels in Morgan Hill – particularly those on Condit Road, Dworkin explained – rely heavily on attendance at soccer and other sports events at the nearby Outdoor Sports Center which is also a key component of tourism.
Many of the ideas proposed at the tourism forum revolved around the Santa Clara Valley wine industry, which includes more than 20 wineries – many of them award-winning. Greg Richtarek of Guglielmo Winery in Morgan Hill said the local industry needs a catch phrase or slogan to get visitors from the north to spend their weekends tasting wine in South County rather than in Napa Valley.
“No bridges, no tolls, no (Highway) 17,” Richtarek repeats to friends from out of town when inviting them to visit Morgan Hill. “There’s a perception that nothing is happening down here, or it’s too far to drive.”
For some business owners, the idea of cross-promotion among local industries is a no-brainer. Many downtown restaurants, for example, already serve local wines and locally grown foods.
Rosy Bergin, owner of Rosy’s At the Beach in downtown Morgan Hill, said one of the best things that individual groups can do to promote tourism, and help each other prepare, is by keeping each other apprised of weekend events and specials.
“A lot of times the Downtown Association (for example) will have a meeting, but we’re kind of a closed group and we don’t know what the soccer fields and (Aquatics Center) are doing,” Bergin said. “We have downtown plans but we don’t know what the hotels are doing or if they have enough rooms. Once we start talking to each other, we’ll have greater success.”
Jeff Dixon, president of Morgan Hill Youth Sports Alliance which operates the OSC, agreed that cross promotion is key, and he liked the idea of a smartphone app discussed at the forum which would notify visitors of all the local events, restaurants, wineries and other places of interest in Morgan Hill.
Dixon added there is significant room for growth in the “sports tourism” industry, which is relatively new in Morgan Hill. The sports fields at the OSC are currently only booked about half the year, and opportunities for cycling, hiking and other outdoor activities abound in South County.
“For our facility, I’m going to the National Association of Sports Commissions symposium next week in Reno,” Dixon said. “We’ll be promoting Morgan Hill and the OSC, and looking for leads on biking and the Aquatics Center.”
The City’s next effort to promote economic development, though not the promised follow-up to the tourism forum, will be at a May 9 “Economic Development Symposium” at Mama Mia’s restaurant. That meeting will include discussions on retail, industrial, downtown development and tourism.
When: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 9
Where: Mama Mia’s restaurant, 275 E. Dunne Ave.
Details and to register: E-mail Carey Stone at cs****@pl************.com
