Catherine Somers has always wanted Los Gatos to be seen as a tourist destination. But by the time the town council came around to her vision—approving $88,000 last week to fund the town’s Visitor and Information Center, social media and marketing—it was too late for her and the Chamber of Commerce she oversees as executive director. Somers is stepping down on June 30, and the rest of the Chamber’s three-person staff is set to leave this summer.
“We were totally surprised,” Somers said of the allocation. “We weren’t even going to say anything this year because of the budget constraints. They never really listened to us before.”
Somers said there’s no bad blood between the Chamber and the council, and that the increase in funds will help the new executive director, who has not yet been hired, start with a clean slate.
“With that validation and with the new executive director starting here, it really does open the doors for more collaboration with the town staff,” Somers said. “I think [the town is] looking forward to that.”
She admits that part of the problem is that no one has yet cracked exactly how to market Los Gatos to tourists.
“The strategy around branding Los Gatos has always been a little ambiguous. Everyone has their own idea,” Somers said. “I think the biggest draw is where we are situated geographically: the last stop before you go into the mountains before the Pacific Ocean. … But you’re still at the tail end of Silicon Valley.”
The Chamber has been marketing the town for both regional and international travelers as a top-tier wedding destination and an up-and-coming wine tasting region, and has ramped up its efforts in the past few years to help the town recover from the pandemic.
“I think what it really comes down to is the council really wants to try and invest more in destination marketing, and the Chamber is the perfect organization to do that,” said Los Gatos Mayor Maria Ristow. “Right now we have a lot of people who come to Los Gatos, but we’re looking for that next step for people to stay in Los Gatos. Come here for a couple of days and overnight.”
The town has given the Chamber $55,000 a year since 2019, and this marks the first increase since then. The town first contracted with the Chamber to run the Visitor Information Center in 2001 with a budget of $100,526.
Tourism revenue dropped from $2.4 million to $700,000 after COVID broke out in 2020. The following year, the town used American Rescue Plan Act funds to fund the Chamber specifically to boost “emergency destination marketing” in an effort to jumpstart pandemic relief and support local businesses.
Chamber events staffer Donna McCurrie said at the May 1 council meeting that the Chamber used those funds to hire a social media coordinator to revamp and rebrand the tourism social media channels to “Visit Los Gatos CA” in June 2021. Funds for that position ran out in January, by which time the combined social media accounts increased their followers from 2,700 to 9,500.
COVID funds aside, this is the first major budget increase for the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce in four years. It comes as the town faces a $3 million annual budget deficit each year for the next five years.
Town Manager Laurel Prevetti said the town will have to pull from the “very tight” general fund or utilize leftover ARPA funds to cover the increase.
Los Gatos’ Community Vitality Manager Monica Renn initially recommended the council match last year’s $55,000 Chamber budget, but Councilmember Rob Rennie motioned to add $33,000 to account for inflation and an increase in destination marketing.
The new allocation will go toward improving the Visit Los Gatos website and potentially hiring a search engine optimization consultant, as well as working with the general managers of local hotels and wineries to do cross-promoting and outreach.
For Los Gatos to become a tourist destination, Somers said, it’s necessary for those who live in town to buy into the plan.
“If residents value their quality of life, in order to sustain the lifestyle we all appreciate here, they need to have visitors come and stay and shop and dine as well,” she added.
Source: www.mercurynews.com