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Sea Monterey and Monterey County Business Council outline tourism, business support work and local economic outreach
Summary
Sea Monterey and the Monterey County Business Council told the Board of Supervisors May 20 they are expanding international outreach, meetings sales and small‑business technical assistance as tourism spending and hotel stays recover in Monterey County.
Sea Monterey (C Monterey) and the Monterey County Business Council presented May 20 to the Board of Supervisors about their fiscal‑year activities funded in part by local development set‑aside (DSA) allocations. Both organizations described outreach to businesses, international and domestic tourism promotion, and efforts to help local firms win government contracts.
Why it matters: Tourism and business development are regional economic drivers for Monterey County; local DSA funding supports marketing, international outreach and technical assistance that can increase local jobs and tax receipts.
Sea Monterey highlights Rob O’Keefe, president and CEO of Sea Monterey, said tourism spending in Monterey County was “not quite back” to 2019 levels overall but that hotel spending had reached a record high (more than $1 billion) and employment in hospitality was the highest ever — about 28,000 workers countywide. O’Keefe described efforts to attract meetings and conferences (high‑value visitors), broaden international representation (including outreach to Korean tour operators) and to highlight South County and less‑visited assets such as Pinnacles National Park. He previewed a new “How to Highway 1” stewardship campaign slated to launch in June to encourage safer, lower‑impact visits to Highway 1 corridors.
Monterey County Business Council (MCBC) Paul Farmer, CEO of MCBC, described the county‑funded Apex Accelerator, Leadership Monterey County and a newly relocated Small Business Development Center (SBDC) office. Farmer reported that contract awards to Monterey County businesses assisted by MCBC were approximately $114 million in the most recent nine months and that the organization’s counseling and training work levered federal contracting dollars into local jobs; he noted a calculated 1,800 jobs created or retained from assisted contracts using BLS multipliers.
Board response and questions Supervisors praised both organizations for marketing South County and expanding outreach to small businesses and noted public concern about overtourism in Big Sur and Highway 1. Several supervisors asked for more detail on performance indicators and on how to spread visitation across the county; Sea Monterey and MCBC said they are tracking room nights, tax receipts and leads for meetings and encouraged continued DSA support for outreach and international representation.
Sources and attribution: Presentations to the Board of Supervisors by Rob O’Keefe (Sea Monterey) and Paul Farmer (Monterey County Business Council) and public comment from Mandy Lindquist (California Rodeo Salinas) during the May 20 board meeting.
