County hears tourism data and parks improvements; officials point to strong return on marketing investment

Two county presentations on May 12 highlighted the economic role of tourism and recent parks investments.

Julie Faber, marketing director for the Bishop Area Chamber and Visitors Bureau, summarized a multi‑year tourism effort funded in part by a $40,000 county investment. Using an attribution vendor (Datify) and social media, the chamber ran spring and lodging campaigns tied to the Bishop Airport and visitor lodging data. Faber said the air service campaign and targeted advertising generated hundreds of thousands of views, and she reported an estimated $512,000 campaign impact from a $15,000 investment during a spring effort that captured travel interest around the super bloom in Death Valley.

"Visitors bring in about 70% of our spend," Faber told the board, and she presented breakdowns of visitor origins, average length of stay (about 2.5 days per lodging visitor) and lodging distribution (reported shares: 46% Lone Pine, 33% Bishop, 9% Independence, 3% Death Valley for ads served in this campaign).

Parks & Recreation Manager Daniel Briseno provided a visual before‑and‑after report on projects completed over the last two years: a pour‑in‑place playground surfacing at Diaz Lake, vault restrooms, installation of concrete picnic tables in campgrounds, disc‑golf enhancements, Baker Creek pedestrian bridge construction, vegetation management and vandalism repairs. Briseno said the Clean California grant work is ongoing and that the Diaz Lake restroom and other projects were completed with county and contractor coordination.

Supervisors praised the presentations, asked follow‑up questions about campground usage and the draft parks plan, and encouraged department staff to identify tools and capital needs ahead of upcoming budget cycles. There were no board actions tied to these presentations at the meeting.