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Visit San Benito outlines first-year marketing gains, seeks 50% lodging support for 2% visitor assessment
Summary
Visit San Benito presented first-year marketing results, said it spent county funds provided and launched a petition seeking a tourism improvement district that would assess lodging a 2% fee estimated to raise $282,000 annually if a majority of lodging operators sign on.
Irene Davis, board president for Visit San Benito County, told the Tourism Advisory Committee that the county-funded nonprofit spent the funds it received and launched a series of marketing efforts this year.
Davis said Visit San Benito launched a tourism website in January, produced social and long-form video content (including a Tres Pinos piece posted the prior evening), secured listings on Visit California and the Central Coast Tourism Council, and obtained editorial placements in a national park magazine and the Yosemite Journal.
The presentation outlined digital metrics and earned-media reach: the presentation cited 9,689 visits to the new Visit San Benito website since its January launch; Facebook posts with as many as 1,650 views; an Instagram post that reached about 43,000 views; TikTok posts with roughly 1,800 views; and paid/earned placements reporting tens of thousands of impressions in some cases. Davis said the group produced a San Benito County ad that appears in Central Coast visitor materials and a multi-page feature in a national park magazine distributed to a stated circulation of 100,000 and readership of 250,000.
Davis also described work to form a tourism improvement district (TID). She said Visit San Benito is collecting petitions from lodging operators for a proposed 2% visitor assessment. “Once we get 50% or more of lodging businesses to support the proposed 2% visitor assessment, the plan will return to the county board for final approval,” Davis said. She told the committee the assessment would generate an estimated $282,000 annually and that the management agreement would run for five years with a renewal option for 10 years.
Committee members asked how the TID funds would be governed. Davis said the Management District Plan designates Visit San Benito (the nonprofit) as the manager of the funds and that lodging operators would be invited to join the board and vote on the annual budget. She said the petition phase is ongoing and that two large Hollister hotels had verbally agreed but had not yet signed petitions.
Davis requested volunteers and noted Visit San Benito is an all-volunteer board. She said the group has hired a videographer and plans more destination videos, including a piece focused on the wine industry. She also raised the possibility of pursuing scenic-highway designation for Highway 25 as a longer-term tourism strategy.
Committee members asked clarifying questions about which lodging types would be included (Davis said any business that collects transient occupancy tax would be part of the district), and about specific lodging operators the nonprofit is approaching (Davis mentioned Pinnacles-area camping operators and Thousand Trails as separate entities she had contacted).
The committee did not take a formal vote on the TID petition. Members agreed to keep the petition and outreach efforts moving and to return any final management or approval questions to the full county board as required by the Management District Plan.
The committee listed the shuttle-to-Pinnacles concept as a future agenda item and asked staff to invite the county’s Local Transportation Authority director for a later discussion of feasibility and funding.
Visit San Benito’s presentation materials and the TID petition remain in the committee record; the nonprofit will continue outreach to lodging operators and return with updates.
