California Welcome Center reports about 1,200 site visitors in Q3; funded by Tourism Improvement District

The Salinas Finance Committee on May 6 received the quarter‑3 fiscal report for the California Welcome Center, which staff said is funded by the city's Tourism Improvement District (TID).

Community Development staff member Lisa Brenton presented the quarter‑3 metrics and fiscal summary. The report shows just over 1,200 site visitors in the quarter, 77 posts and about 6,300 website visits combined across the California Welcome Center site and the statewide Soul of California portal. The city disbursed $19,834 (of a $20,000 allocation) to the center in the quarter after retaining 1% for administrative costs, the presentation said.

The report also showed fiscal-year-to-date collections of just over $75,000 in TID assessments and disbursements of about $74,000 to the visitor center. Brenton noted the current contract runs July 1 through Aug. 30, 2025, and said staff had provided year-over-year comparisons for posts, views and visitor counts. She acknowledged the difficulty of measuring a direct causal link between Welcome Center activity and overnight stays; the report uses the amount collected per room night to estimate room nights, which staff described as an imperfect proxy.

Committee members asked whether the city was currently using general fund dollars to support the center; staff confirmed the contract is funded from TID assessments remitted by local hoteliers and that the city retains 50¢ per overnight stay for administration and transmits $2.00 per stay to the regional tourism bureau under the current arrangement. Brenton said the city can audit or augment the program but that auditing TID remittances is not current practice.

A committee motion to receive the report carried unanimously.

Ending: The committee received the quarter‑3 welcome center report and staff said the FY 2024–25 contract timeline will guide any future contract discussions or augmentation requests.