Slide 1 Thanks to volunteer Board and thanks to Mayor and City Council for reinvesting in tourism and granting the Solvang Conference & Visitors Bureau our current fiscal year budget. We Appreciate your votes!

1  

2  

Slide 2

Slide 3 Our mission as the city’s marketing agency is to Boost Solvang’s Economy through Tourism.  

3  

Slide 4 We don’t do it alone, of course. We thank each organization here and dozens of local businesses and our “partners in promotion”, helping the CVB leverage all resources.

4  

Slide 5 Tourism remains Solvang’s #1 industry – supporting nearly 1,000 jobs.

5  

Slide 6 Solvang’s Visitor Center, served over 97,000 happy travelers under the direction of Manager Dean Klitgaard. We added three new ambassadors this year. Lana Clark, our admin assistant sold Ad Board advertising space in the Visitor Center to more than 40 local businesses.

6  

Slide 7 Our popular free digest sized Visitor Guide - distributed at visitor centers and upon request, general public, tour operators and media. We concluded our contract & advertisers will be happy to hear we are supporting a single magazine with VisitSYV that will feature two covers- one for Solvang. We publish multiple collateral pieces including a new “Eat, Drink & be Married.” Top 10 Reasons to tie the knot aimed at the lucrative LGBT market.

7  

Slide 8 We are proud of our # 1 ranking as the most visited tourism related website in the Santa Ynez Valley.

8  

Slide 9 We just soft launched a new beautiful responsive website which resizes to mobile and tablet. Video plays automatically when a person visits the website.

9  

Slide 10 Over 40,000 people have signed up to receive our Solvang monthly E-Newsletter. Approximately 350 local business owners and manager and civic leaders receive our quarterly B2B E-newsletter. We send electronic surveys after our major events to receive feedback from both the public and the business partners who participated in n effort to continually upgrade and improve our events.

10  

Slide 11 Social Media marketing is another important facet of our digital media marketing. We have seen tremendous growth in our facebook numbers in likes, reach and engagement.

11  

Slide 12 We purchased the Experience Solvang app which was created by Heather Bedford. The flowerpot directional signs on each corner include the QRCode to both the iPhone and Android version of the app. We have plans to update the information as soon as possible and to offer more advertising opportunities there, too.

12  

SLIDE 13 Last summer we conducted 72 consumer interviews in LA & San Jose as part of a branding study to gain insight to travel decisions & perceptions. Those eye-opening results launched new advertising creative aimed at visually informing multiple audiences.

13

SLIDE 14 We placed 25 print and matching digital ads, not to mention facebook, etc. Flexible artwork allows us to rotate images depending on the outlet.    

14  

SLIDE 15 We hit our #1 international market Canada, heavily this year. In addition to 2 travel publications, we secured a full page within Toronto Star & National Post w/ 226K readers, plus one month of animated spots underground PATH’s 100K people per day AND in frigid New York’s Times Square for a week. (Times Square see 1.5 million people per day.)

15  

SLIDE 16 Next up- PR locally, our publicist, Laura Kath, Mariah Marketing, pumped out significant stats. In addition to her weekly Solvang blog we were named by USA TODAY & Smarter Travel & Good Morning America as a top travel destination The CVB inspired over 85 articles.

16  

Slide 17 Other articles further from home included spectacular coverage in Mexico, France & Denmark, making Solvang an essential part of any California road trip.      

17  

SLIDE 18 Our PR firm in Denmark, Atlantic Link, keep connecting Solvang to her mother country, via the travel trade, media and consumers.  

18  

SLIDE 19 We host many FAMS- Familiarization site visits- annually. Shown here are tour operators, state tourism reps and journalists from 6 countries. (Chef/author Ole and smørrebrød cooking class.)  

19  

SLIDE 20 The CVB pro-actively sought out opportunities to shine a light on Solvang wile adding to our economy. These 4 conference brought good will & tons of media exposure.  

20  

SLIDE 21 Solvang was well represented at 6 tradeshows this year with 103 travel appointments & hundreds of face-to-face w/consumers.

21  

SLIDE 22 Tiffany decided to get married and move to Michigan in December. We searched and found a superb new Sales Manager, Yvonne Crownover. Progress is being made with 40 leads for conferencing services for tour groups, we are expanding Sales Lead Generation with our new website. We are already working for Princess Cruise s to bring two tours a day more than nine dates this fall. Dean and Doug, visitor center ambassadors conducted eight walking tours and Collette Tours had 22 dates for lunch.

22  

SLIDE 23 The “Alliance” matching grant started 2 years ago by this city council and has now grown to include Buellton VCB, SB Vintners, and now aptly spearheaded by VisitSYV, your regional marketing investment has garnered the following: (see slide).

23  

SLIDE 24 The Solvang CVB took advantage of the SIDEWAYS 10th Anniversary last fall, along with the county partners. We also produced Julefest & worked with Parks & Rec to bring Santa to town.

24  

SLIDE 25 This year’s 23rd Taste of Solvang saw new events via MUSE Event Planners. Attendees survey said 84% shopped while here and 55% were new to Solvang. We sold tickets online from September – March 21, using Square Up Market. Both business participants and ticket holders received electronic surveys asking about their TOS experience.

25  

SLIDE 26 It’s been a good year for getting in touch with the locals. We helped get the word out about our drought to area hotels with the help of Shelby Sims from VisitSYV. We co-sponsored the Clutternomics Speaker at the Solvang Chamber of Commerce Expo and proudly helped launch the New Clean Air Express )CAE) Saturday service between the Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Barbara. Thanks Mayor! The CAE costs only $7. per person one way.

26  

SLIDE 27 Last but not least, we helped bring over one hundred Danish athletes & their coaches to Solvang to rest and practice for the LA2015 Special Olympics World Games.

27  

SLIDE 28 FOLLOW us on Facebook and Twitter, and submit your tourism related events at SolvangUSA.com/events/submit-an-event/ to have them listed in our ever popular calendar of events. THANK You!

28