When discovering that Morgan Hill and our South Santa Clara Valley have fantastic wineries, tremendous art galleries and artists, memorable ag tourism and a host of fabulous events that celebrate our communities and heritage, many people who live within our “south valley” region are genuinely surprised!
That is just one of the reasons that a partnership between the Morgan Hill Economic Development Partnership (made up of the City of Morgan Hill and the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce) and Gilroy Visitors Bureau was formed and began a year ago!
The focus of the South Santa Clara Valley Tourism Partnership is to encourage tourism, thereby increasing transient occupancy tax (TOT) and sales tax. This regional program is a catalyst in marketing efforts and a conduit between identified visitor markets and the local private sector. Economic development is the payoff, when resources of time, money and staff are effectively used in marketing efforts.
Remarkable and very significant accomplishments have taken place over the last 12 months, and three of them include:
Partnered with Gilroy (formerly Bonfante) Gardens to host more than 25 writers from the Bay Area Travel Writers Group for two-day familiarization trip of the region, which included wine tasting at Pedrizzetti Winery, wine tasting and dinner at Guglielmo Winery and a stop and visit with Andy at Andy’s Orchard.
Attended California Travel and Tourism Media Reception in San Francisco meeting with 80-plus media from the Bay Area attending and distributed goodie bags that included collateral from our regional wineries, golf courses, shopping opportunities, ag tourism, including Andy’s Orchard, parks and recreation opportunities. Also represented our region at the Sunset Magazine Celebration Weekend and Bay Area Travel Show, both trade shows that totaled well over 2,000 personal contacts that included the opportunity to give more than 15,000 pieces of collateral about what to experience in “The Gateway to the Central Coast.”
Coordinated advertising opportunities in the Central Coast Tourism Guide, with 50,000 Guides printed and distributed at California welcome centers and visitor bureaus throughout the state; Discover Magazine (30,000 distributed monthly) and VIA magazine, the AAA publication, which 2.7 million households receive.
Tourism and making the effort to have a presence in today’s competitive hospitality market is essential to our community’s economic health and well-being. It contributes to businesses directly and indirectly hospitality related, as well as visitors and locals alike, finding that they need services we have to provide. The SSCVTP has provided Morgan Hill the opportunity, for the first time, to truly be “in the game” with other communities in our region that have been doing this for years. Credit must go to the City of Morgan Hill for its commitment to regional partnerships and believing that Morgan Hill is definitely receiving more “bang for the buck” through this partnership. Also, KUDOS to 2006 Chamber Chair Ted Fox and Gilroy Visitors Bureau President Majid Bahriny for their vision that resulted in this truly exciting and beneficial relationship.
Dan Ehrler has been serving as the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce executive director for two years and has been the chief executive officer for various chamber of commerce organizations in California for more than 20 years. Contact him at de*****@********ll.org or at (408) 779-9444.
