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Laguna Beach schedules visitor-stewardship town hall as city weighs tourism strategy
Summary
The city will hold a visitor stewardship town hall April 17 to discuss managing visitor impacts and aligning Visit Laguna incentives with resident priorities; officials cited TOT revenue and a proposed 10-year reauthorization for the tourism district.
Mayor Alex Runagi said the city will host a visitor stewardship town hall on Thursday, April 17 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers; the meeting will be recorded and city officials encouraged public attendance.
Runagi said the discussion will focus on mitigating visitor impacts after last summer’s high beach attendance and on aligning the tourism agency Visit Laguna with resident priorities. He said the goal is to shift Visit Laguna toward stewardship so the agency’s incentives better reflect community needs, particularly for off-season hotel stays that generate transient-occupancy-tax revenue the city uses for capital improvements.
Runagi told the program that the Montage hotel has contributed more than $70 million in transient-occupancy-tax revenue since it opened, money he characterized as funding for the city’s capital-improvement program. He said the city is preparing for a 10-year reauthorization of the tourism-district arrangement that funds Visit Laguna and that governance questions, including resident input on the agency’s board, are expected to be part of the reauthorization discussion.
The interview did not provide a formal agenda for the town hall, nor did it record specific policy commitments or budget changes. Runagi said the aim is to find ways to mitigate day-trip impacts while encouraging overnight stays that support hotel-tax revenue for infrastructure.
