Senator McGuire Economic Roundtable: Hospitality & Tourism

one of you for joining us for our economic roundtable on california's hospitality and tourism industry and the impact that the pandemic induced recession has had on the industry we're grateful that you have joined us we know how busy each new each and every one of you are and we know right now that there are i've just seen the numbers over 600 strong from every corner of california that have joined us from small business owners uh we have we have folks from organized labor we have individuals who are hospitality and tourism executives and we can't wait to hear from you uh here later in this economic roundtable discussion if you'd like to submit your questions today please email us right now we'd love to be able to hear from you the email address to be able to submit your questions your comments your concerns it's senator.maguire at senate.ca.gov we're going to be taking your questions your comments your concerns your criticisms at senator.maguire at senate.ca.gov here in just a few moments california's travel in hospitality sectors well they're among the largest economic drivers for the golden state before the global pandemic hit more than 1.2

million californians 1.2 million californians earned their livelihoods in the travel and tourism related business visitors in 2019 spent 145 billion dollars in the golden state that generated approximately 12.3 12.3 billion in state and local taxes

and by the way this was the 10th consecutive year of growth in fact tourism taxes have now outpaced sales tax growth in many california communities but the impacts of the kovid 19 the recession it's been absolutely devastating for travel and hospitality workers and thousands of small businesses who rely on a healthy tourism economy the economic fallout of the pandemic is 10 times worth get this the economic fallout of the pandemic is 10 times worse for hospitality and tourism-related businesses than the 911 terrorist attacks nearly half of all california's hospitality workers have lost their jobs that's over 600 000 californians and the state has lost 85 billion in visitor spending that's down 60 from 2019. state and local governments they've lost 6.6 billion in tax revenues and those tax revenues as we all know fund vital services like police in fire public health and safety travel and hospitality workers they now make up a third they make up one third of all jobs lost in california since the start of the pandemic thousands of businesses now are reeling in one of the state's most vital tax sources it's now dried up yet there's been little to no focus on the struggles the workers and the hospitality-based businesses are facing the good news is this the good news is california as we always are are is positioned to rebound we are well positioned with a data driven plan and that's why we wanted to be able to bring you all together today to be able to bring forward that data driven plan which what is going to help us recover first off california is the only state in the nation that has a privately funded tourism bureau that's called visit california and visit california has invested 1.1 billion in advertising advertising the california brand over the last decade but visit california because they're privately funded they're struggling just like so many workers in small businesses which is why we have now introduced senate bill 285 which would provide visit california with a one-time 45 million dollars to fund a marketing initiative that would deliver 10.3 billion dollars in revenue to california businesses and 865 million in additional state and local taxes this initiative would be dubbed calling all californians and would be launched it would be launched when the california department of public health declares it appropriate and safe to resume travel and it would emphasize to travelers how to travel safely across the state by the way this plan that we're going to present to you today it's data driven and it's based off of a successful initiative built after the 911 terrorist attack tragedy in 2001. back in 2001 the state of

california invested just under 9 million on a marketing initiative that nine million dollars was match dollar for dollar for dollar by california broadcasters radio and tv stations so we doubled our investment so that initial just under nine million dollars turned into the following that initial nine million dollars turned into 3.2 billion in visitor spending it turned into 10.6 million in tax revenue the travel industry traveled jumped in the state by 10 and by the way california was one of only three states in america after the tragic 9 11 attacks to see increased tourism numbers we know this plan will work and hospitality workers have never needed our assistance small business owners have never needed our assistance now more than ever they need our assistance now this afternoon we're going to be joined by leaders in hospitality and tourism we're going to be joined by dedicated hospitality workers we're going to be joined by small business owners visitor bureau leaders and hundreds from across the state who are joining us for this roundtable economic conversation so let's get right into it and we couldn't be more pleased to be able to have uh the ceo the president and ceo of visit california her name is carolyn pateta she is leading this non-profit organization created to market california as a premier travel destination to increase the state share of tourism-related revenues which we know benefits communities big and small all across the golden state so without further ado let's welcome miss pateta to our round table conversation you have the floor miss pateta seven minutes and i'll give you a thirty second prompt we're gonna ask you to take yourself off a mute well thank you for that uh important introduction senator and of course your leadership on this issue as you said we are visit california is a 506 uh c6 non-profit and we actually have more than 20 000 businesses that pay an assessment and because of the pandemic uh when the tourism business revenues stopped so did our funding and and you'll hear from some on the panel today uh that very narrative we were able to conserve some cash due to the shutdowns for recovery campaign but our marketing will stop in june of this year as those reserves dwindle so again as the senator explained kovid's been very unkind to california before the pandemic california was one of the country's top tourism economies uh frankly the number one tourism economy and now as you can see on this slide it's one of the worst performing only five states have lost more visitor spending since march the recovery will be very difficult because of the protracted nature of this pandemic and the lack of clarity with regard to an open for business messaging especially california because we have been the most strictest state in the nation in terms of lockdowns for safety purposes but as you said after the great recession we actually did come back and rebounded two years faster than the rest of the economy and we think with this stimulus we can be successful on the same track you mentioned the statewide impacts you can see the local impacts are very dramatic in terms of the cuts of transit occupancy tax and tourism related sales tax revenue that have hit you know not only major metropolitan areas but our rural areas um where you know in many of these areas and most we're expecting hotel tax collections to be less than half of 2018 2019 levels which will create a major impact on city and community services anaheim you will hear a lot about anaheim it's just a great example uh we have 357 000 residents in that town but 25 million visitors each year uh they're expecting a 48 decline in hotel taxes just as an example and have had to cut 75 million dollars in city services so with theme park the theme park shut down and disneyland obviously shut down they've had to lay off thousands uh and the community has felt the pain across all sectors business restaurants transportation and you'll hear a little bit more from your esteemed panelists on those impacts for example i also just want to note how important the meetings business is in the united states of america uh people attend conferences and generate about 140 billion dollars a year in the us every state in the nation now is permitting meetings of some size except for california many large conventions have a three to five year planning horizon and so that money now is quickly being lost to california and going to other states because of the planning and the contracts being signed right now i'll shift in the last couple minutes of what this 45 million dollar stimulus means in terms of regenerating the travel growth and the economy in california and how important it is the campaign has three objectives and that's to increase travel spending shorten the recovery timeline is number two and increase tax revenue and restore jobs we'll be doing this in two primary phases the first in state calling all californians that's the first layer of the campaign and then finally as uh safety restrictions start to lift and people want to travel more which we are seeing uh will migrate to a california's calling strategy with two key themes um right now californians are actually making vacations plans uh and and as you mentioned we did do this successfully after 9 11. and it definitely worked so we are going back to that playbook to start with an in-state audience we have not done that since 9 11. uh but again very successful

in terms of california being only one of three states to grow share after we continue with calling uh california's calling we'll migrate to this calling all californians campaign with two key campaign initiatives um that will run on out of home digital boards as well as online and linear tv uh and and that is really to start to leverage the competition so what i'm showing here now is is just um creative in terms of what we will be laying out for digital outdoor boards trying to get californians to take their trips in california instead of out of california as we migrate to the national level we're launching a campaign called what if california which will bring the joy of possibility to consumers throughout this nation as well as the launch of the relaunch of the california road trip republic campaign because so many people have adopted that way of travel for safety and appropriate social distancing and we are a world class uh road trip destination and we have that product all over california the big piece we're missing is the family market it represents like 44 of our overall travel it's huge it's competitive we've got to be aggressive about it but we do not have the funding for this layering so this stimulus would create a second iteration of our california creative that has been so successful in the past entitled what if california and really try to get into the competitive context and attract the family uh layer throughout the nation and then finally most importantly we will thread all these campaigns with co-branding and co-op so we localize the creative to all the communities throughout california but we speak with one unified voice instead of a myriad of voices and that's what has impact and will shorten the recovery curve we've done this in the past it's been very successful and we are offering a 30 media discount to those communities those are real dollars that they just could not purchase on their own with the call to action going straight to the communities that are so impacted up and down the state so with that i'll just close by saying we have a great track record of success as you mentioned post 911 uh and for the past five years our domestic program has generated an average of 415 dollars of spending for every dollar invested and a return uh of 227 in tax revenue for every dollar invested we're expecting this campaign to generate about 10.3 billion dollars in travel spending incrementally if we had not done this campaign throughout the whole state which actually puts all of our hospitality industry back to work because it's so labor intensive so with that i'll yield back my time to you senator and await questions thank you carolyn pateta the ce the president and ceo of visit california we are so incredibly grateful for your steady hand your leadership through some of the most challenging times that the state and nation has faced thank you so much for your vision as well i think the other important part of all of this uh thanks to the good work of miss pateta in addition to the 45 million that we still need to secure which we need your help with um we have a commitment by the california broadcasters association and the california news publishers association they represent radio television stations in the state all newspapers across the state for every dollar that the state would spend with newspapers radio stations television stations they will match it with another dollar so we'll be able to double the tax dollar uh for this calling all california initiative uh which is just critical to its long-term success we're going to hear more from this pateta during our roundtable conversation and we invite you to be able to join us for the roundtable conversation please get your questions your comments in now we have dozens of comments that have been submitted prior to today's event but we want to hear from you senator.maguire at senate.ca.gov email us your questions right now senator.maguire at senate.ca.gov we look forward to hearing from you ladies and gentlemen we're now going to be moving on to be able to hear from those who are on the front lines look hospitality workers their families they have been hit so incredibly hard and we are so grateful to be joined by two individuals who have dedicated their lives to the hospitality industry we're gonna first hear from john de florian uh he is a disneyland resort cast member uh he has been with the disney family resort for 29 years he's dedicated his adult life uh to the business uh into making people smile he's a chiefs uh chief shop steward for teamsters local 495. he is going to be sharing some of the stories some of the stories he's been hearing from his members who are all hospitality workers who have been impacted by this covet induced reception john you have three minutes i'll give you a 30-second prompt john thank you so much for joining us thank you very much senator for this opportunity i received touching stories from dozens of my peers i have condensed their stories into bullet points number one i have done my part i've stayed home i've worn my mask i want to live my life but the state of california says no cast member number two i love my job actually it's not a job it's a place i can make magic every day it's my home away from home and it's my second family it's now becoming difficult to make payments on basic necessities i had to move my 80 year old mother to live with me because of covert 19 it is not friendly as seniors it was extremely difficult watching as many of my co-workers were laid off this past september due to the continued shutdown in the state i never had a chance to say goodbye or give them one last time cast member number three working in a job that requires continuous social interaction making magical moments for children it's a dream job it's my happy place being forced to withdraw from society in order to be safe has affected me mentally i live with two older family members i'm afraid of bringing the virus home to them it's been like walking on eggshells for 11 months and there are also so many frustrations with edd that's number number four this closure has affected me mentally emotionally physically and most importantly financially there is no other company willing to put in the amount of safety for passengers look at walt disney world those four parks have been open since last july without incident opening these two california parks would be beneficial to the entire state of california cast member number five the political games that were being played in washington dc was difficult to watch as it affects so many of us in so many ways if the government shuts down the economy it is their responsibility to pick up the slack 11 months of uncertainty has created anxiety wondering if i will be able to pay my bills cast member number six the resort closure forced me to move out of state of california to cat to arizona moving to arizona forced me to leave a career not a job but a career with endless possibilities the resort closure didn't just affect my life it was my wife's life my daughter's life my mother-in-law's life there is so much inequity watching the state of california and their willingness to help certain sectors of business while ignoring others number seven leave about 30 seconds john with the closure of the resort i felt isolated i'm experiencing anxiety not knowing what will happen with my taxes disabled i didn't have taxes taken out because i needed every penny to survive i used to be able to pick up extra shifts in overtime and now that has stopped last cast member i am so confused it feels like the goal line keeps getting moved and the rules keep changing while the game has already started thanks very much and thank you john deflourio he has dedicated his adult life to making families and kids smile at the disneyland resort he's now uh a chief shop steward with team service local 495 and anaheim uh we so appreciate your hard work and he was just telling us some of the heart-wrenching stories that he's hearing from members hard-working californians who have been impacted by this covet induced recession all right now ladies and gentlemen we started in southern california now we're going to make our way to northern california and we're going to hear from hurry hello everybody uh there we go rachel sorry about that time i just got muted uh he's put 20 years into uh his profession uh and he is a steward with teamsters local 853.

horatio we welcome you thank you so much for your commitment and please tell us your story thank you for give us the opportunity to voice out for all the people that is around us especially in our industry i'm working for santa clara convention center yes one year is too long for us and everybody's family it's been affected especially for being paying bills paying um the most important thing that is insurance is for us and in my case my personal case i have a wife that has traded problems so medicine is really costly so for my kid that is still a remission thanks for the leukemia that he has and and thanks for the insurance that i have been carrying a long time he's still alive i'm grateful for that story i came aloud but right now our situation is getting turned in thousand ghosts towns totally so we can know allow this happen to californians right here in this area we need all the help that we can have and doing something ahead is always better than doing nothing at all and this move will help to promote business instead of waiting for something that isn't probably we don't know what's going to happen but i like the idea that just to have promoting like any californians we got to get ahead of the game before something gets worse so thank you for the opportunity that just let us know our members are really proud that somebody's doing something for california mr cortez thank you mr cortez you said to us earlier that you're hearing from a lot of your co-workers they've had to go on unemployment uh they've been struggling uh just 30 seconds if you will um tell us what you're hearing from coworkers who've been unemployed for the greater part of a year it's challenging and that's why we're focused on this strategic 45 million to be able to safely travel again uh once the california department of public health deems so but talk to us about what you're hearing from your co-workers quickly oh it's hard to hear all the the calls that we receive as a steward sometimes we just receive the calls of co-workers when we're gonna go back when we're gonna happen what's happening right now what we can do uh surviving out of the unemployment is not enough some of us we have to pull out our savings totally just in order just to survive and and many of us we have to pay bills no matter what they're coming back people is the plaintiffs savings totally uh going to live with relatives stuff like that that that never seen before and and basically that's what we all help them is available right now that's horacio cortez we're going to hear more from mr cortez here in just a few moments he's a team member of the santa clara county convention center he's also a steward with teamsters local 853 in santa clara county horatio thank you great job um look we've heard from carolyn pateta who gave us an overview of the challenges with the industry in what that recovery plan looks like we then heard from john horatio about the impacts on workers now we want to hear from barat patel uh i'm sure you know barack's property if you visited disneyland uh he is the president of hustle inn and castle inn in suites is a family-owned hotel family-owned hotel for decades i might add by the patel family it has been in the family for decades his family built the castle in suites across from the disneyland resort and there has never been a time in the family's history where they've struggled as much as they're struggling now uh we'd like to turn the uh conversation over to mr patel to be able to tell his story uh you have three minutes sir and thank you for joining us if you don't mind take yourself off of you thank you senator for this opportunity and for everything that you're doing um my father came to anaheim 47 years ago and opened the original peter pan motor lodge and then he built the castle in and now we're on our third generation my kids are involved in the business so we've been tied to the city of anaheim for quite some time and it is a family business and our the employees that work for us are our family we've had employees that have worked with us for over 20 years and one of the saddest days of my life um was the day i had to tell the majority of them that we have to let them go because we don't know how long this recession this situation was going to last we kept everybody on as long as we could uh ever like everybody else we thought this might be only a month two months that type of thing but unfortunately it continued on um we've kept some employees about 20 of our staff just to keep the property maintained and then operational field phone calls we do get calls from people daily asking when disneyland is going to open when we're going to open when they can come back we have a lot of repeat guests and this is like their second home and we treat them like family and we miss those people i miss all the families walking up and down harbor boulevard going to disneyland the happiest place on earth seeing the kids excited um but i also see the despair that's going on right now all the other family businesses anaheim is a town full of family businesses from restaurants gift shops other motels hotels it's just been impacting us tremendously it's hard to say what the dollar amount is but the pain that i see is is is astronomical in the eyes of all the business owners in this area um we rely on disney business we also rely on the convention center unfortunately they've had to cancel over 300 conventions you know and that's impacted us and like miss pateta mentioned that they book in advance so even if we open up we don't know when the conventions are going to be able to come back and that's a lot of workers that are work at the convention center so this has really impacted a lot of people um and uh like i said and i want to reiterate you know the employees are our family and seeing that many people affect that many families that are so close to us is is very hard um and i know we're not unique but it's very devastating for us and it's hard for the industry as a whole and i think what you're doing uh senator and what uh visit california is doing we'll bring this back and um i think well i'm looking forward to some great times in the future but we want to bring that up sooner than later um 30 seconds mr patel yes um like us would like to say disneyland and um if anyone's going to open right properly like john said it's disney um the anaheim convention center has got their gbac certification which are the only one i believe on the west coast which is international safety certification so everybody is doing what they can to make travel safe again and i believe we're on the right road and hopefully with your help and with everything else we can get there sooner thank you so much we are so grateful that mr patel would join us again he is a family owned hotel operator again for decades the uh castle inn in suites and anaheim mr patel thank you mr patel is going to be hanging out with us here to be able to answer your questions and concerns in the coming few minutes but first we'd like to be able to hear from rhonda salisbury so we've heard urban concerns but one incredible thing about the tourism economy here in california it positively impacts small communities in large cities all throughout this state rhonda salisbury is the ceo of visit yosemite uh and she does an amazing job also as the film commissioner rhonda we want to turn it over to you because what you want to say is this is more than just hospitality it's also impacting uh thousands upon thousands of family-owned businesses whether it's restaurants or retail across the state you have three minutes welcome rhonda salisbury thank you senator for having me um i just i wanted to start off by saying in the 35 years i've been in this industry i've never ever seen anything like this and you know the stories that we heard today we are hearing especially in our rural community we are hearing stories like this every single day hundreds of people you know talking to us and telling us how devastated they are their businesses are very barely surviving um so now more and more than ever we rely on visit california to help us um elevate our marketing strategies whether you're a small tourism bureau or a large one we really rely on their their help to get us through um as you were talking about um our restaurant industry has been hit very very hard uh one of our our my one of my favorites and one of our bigger restaurants in town is our our brew pub and um it's a family-owned business and they reported that they are 80 to 90 percent loss in revenue compared to 2019 with the shutdowns the openings um all the money that they've had to spend um you know retrofitting and then then they were able to open outside um basically do some takeout service some outside um outside serving i mean i'm hearing this from all of our restaurants you know they're only doing that to um keep their employees employed because basically they're making you know they're breaking even if that and then we had our fire big big creek fire and then we had our wind event that actually tore down all the outside restaurant locations so these people have been hit hard over and over and over again and it just breaks my heart to hear that um one of them told me that the ppp was the only reason why they are in business and are going to stay in business we hope if we can get things going um visit california their co-op programs are so huge for all of us the culinary programs the travel responsibly programs um the co-ops are the are the most important that carolyn talked about earlier um without those i'm not sure how we are going to make it through this four-year recovery process especially since now it's going to be the most competitive time we've ever had with all of us vying for the same the same customers so most importantly being able to do the co-op programs the matching funds like you said with the with the media and the newspapers things like that are going to be just crucial for this this uh california tourism recovery program thank you thank you so much rhonda salisbury so ms salisbury does an amazing job uh on behalf of the visit yosemite organization she is not just the ceo but also the film commissioner and we are so appreciative of your work and thank you for joining us so ladies and gentlemen it's now time to be able to open it up we're gonna uh take your questions your comments and concerns and i gotta tell you uh questions are coming in hot and heavy we're gonna ask each of our panelists if you could please keep your responses to about 30 to 60 seconds because we want to get through as many questions as possible we're going to ask each of our panelists to please take yourself off of mute so that we can get into this lightning round for questions so if each of our panelists can take themselves off a mute we'd be grateful if you'd like to submit a question please do so now at senator.maguire at senate.ca.gov we're taking your questions for this economic roundtable conversation with tourism uh and hospitality leaders from across the state senator.maguire at senate.ca.gov submit your questions now senator.maguire at senate.ca.gov let's get right into it

we're going to go to the president and ceo of visit california her name is carolyn viteta miss pateta we're getting a lot of concern in regards to reopening guidelines so kerry writes in san diego tourism has lost twenty years of economic gains as a result of covid and were forecasting in san diego a five-year recovery timeline what kerry says is it impacts 50 000 san diegans who have lost jobs as a result of the closures the longer we wait to give guidelines or notices and when we can reopen uh the more that we're going to lose to other states so miss pateta i know it's a little separate but because we're receiving so many questions about guidelines can you talk to us about that because obviously we need to be able to focus on this initiative but also what reopening looks like across the state let's turn it over to ms patel to talk to us about reopening guidelines yes thanks senator i you know i think the administration is really starting to lean into that discussion now there's as a matter of fact i'll be on a call with the state department of public health later today in some related discussions as well as vaccinations uh so you know it's been this massive timing issue in terms of the prioritization of how they're managing covet i'm thrilled that we have a new board member the head of the governor's office of economic development or gobiz dd myers who's an incredible leader has the governor's ear and has mentioned to myself and our board members that they are actively engaged in those discussions now so i'm hoping that the the meetings guidelines are are now more imminent than we've seen in the past uh it certainly the discussions and the details around those discussions have ramped up it's very complicated but again i i feel better about it than i have in the past uh we're gonna stick with carolyn pateta that is uh carolyn is the president ceo of visit california this next question has come in from annelise annalise wants to talk about attracting locals to travel could tourism pivot to attract locals to visit highlight local businesses destinations rather than just road trips and scenery and utilize local artistry to sell uh specific goods so let's talk about that miss potato because one of the first layers of this calling all californians initiative is in-state travel so why don't you cover that one more time do a little bit of a deep dive on what that means and what that looked like yeah absolutely senator and didn't have time to kind of double click on that in the the first opening but we are very much leaning into uh the the local initiatives culture activities and experience that frankly differentiate us from the competitive set it's a very strong factor for us so not only are we looking at road trips which actually stimulates local business because people are interested in the uniqueness of main street for example and we've got this incredible plethora of product throughout california where we're hitting local artisans the culinary scene culture really the road trip is the vehicle but the transaction is the california local uh in addition to that throughout our robust own channels uh we have 33 33 million followers through our own channels we'll be launching a content campaign called california local basically l-o-c-a-l um and that will be part of this initiative too i stayed on kind of the higher funnel high impact of getting top of mind awareness for the consumer that's first and foremost is getting their attention so that they make that decision to stay in california and not go somewhere else but we will be feeding them a lot of content around talking about california locals and they're just the best ambassadors for california and so that will be front and center too thank you so much karen bateta ceo of visit california we're taking your questions and comments we have now nearly 700 strong who have joined us across the state to talk about this reopening plan uh california's economic rebound when it comes to our travel and tourism industry but we can't do this without you we need to secure 45 million dollars that's going to be through senate bill 285 if you'd like to join us to be able to help get this legislation passed and the 45 million secured we're going to give you an email address right now info caltravel.org info caltravel.org if you'd like to join us to help us secure this 45 million in the state budget to be able to get senate bill 285 pass email right now info caltravel.org we'd love to be able to work with you it's going to take all of us in urban suburban rural communities to be able to secure these dollars to help get our tourism economy moving again so we got our next question that is coming from maddie maddie is asking about rural california we're first going to go to rhonda salisbury ceo uh visit yosemite then we're going to open it up for uh karen lubateta so rhonda maddie asks how are you addressing smaller more rural areas reopening um and what that looks like so rhonda talk to us what does reopening look like in more rural communities and why is this investment the 45 million important for rural california to get folks traveling again rhonda then we're going to go to carolyn okay so um great question uh rural california right now is um you know is waiting i know everybody is is just really waiting to come out um from all the studies we've done and so the visitors are waiting to come out and come see us again they want to travel they want to come to this rural destinations um so our our restaurants our um lodging all those facilities have had the kova's re coveted cleaning and all that in place for a long time they're gearing up they're waiting um for us to get out with marketing um like carolyn said we've been marketing mostly calif you know all of california this year um trying to get people in so um basically we're there we're ready we know we have the demand waiting um to come back out and our properties are just chomping at the bit to be able to open up that's rhonda salisbury ceo of visit yosemite let's go to karen the botanic karen the potetta is president ceo of visit california visit california will be the one that will be initiating the organization i'll be initiating this calling all california campaign so miss patel look candidly there is always concern that uh the initiative will be focused on more urban areas but candidly miss pateta you've told me that we need to be able to get rural started uh ju it's just as important to get real started as well so talk to us how will this campaign focus on rural california well um first and foremost calling all californians california let's talk with the in-state audience first and and why we've pivoted there because most of the time in in a normal circumstance we're in a national or an international audience promoting the entire brand california is blessed with an embarrassment of riches and diversity and it's all linked together by these incredible scenic roads so i'm going to start with the california road trip initiative that would be a huge stimulus people feel safer traveling in their cars as i said and we need to capitalize on that because we are a notch above the competition if we have a good substantial share of voice to promote that senator i don't know if it's appropriate or not but we are prepared to show creative on uh our born to be wild campaign that gives you a taste or the audience a taste of that and that showcases the bounty of our rural regions but also the connectivity of our urban core so if you'd like we can show you let's do that okay ryan whatever comes our way explode into space fly your flag sing your anthem ride with us in the california road trip republic so i think that content speaks for itself it just gave me chills you know it's iconic it's world class and and it's designed to get people thinking about the bounty of california first and foremost and then the two other layered campaigns that i talked about before principally the what if kittifornia we're also blessed with embarrassment of riches in terms of our iconic theme parks but also our beaches our state and national parks that are all throughout california as well as again the urban cores of museums and culture so there's a bounty of great value propositions for families to partake in and that's the message we need to get out at the top of the funnel and around compelling call to action and inspiration and then using our own content channels uh to follow up with that engagement with individual prospective travelers thank you so much karen the pateta she's president ceo uh visit california uh showing us one of those uh commercials that will help get californians knowing that one it's safe to travel only after the california department of public health says it is that it is safe to travel by the way we'd be working in coordination with the california department of public health all right we're going to be going to our next question this comes in from brian miss pateta brian is looking for some stats we're going to have you give a 60 second rundown on statistics looking for stats on economic impact of covid on the california travel industry miss pateta if you want to just take away some of those stats it's been absolutely devastating for urban rural suburban california uh on what this coven induced recession has done to workers uh to hoteliers to retail to restaurants we're gonna turn it over to carolyn bateta uh to be able to give some quick statistics for brian and then we're going to turn it over to john just to be able to give us some quick antidotes about how this covenant induced recession has impacted cast members and his members with teamsters but carolyn please yeah just on a state-wide level it's been devastating for all counties in california particularly covet has had a higher impact on our urban cores in total we've seen about a precipitous fall of 59 overall in travel spending and we don't expect us to get back to 2019 levels for five years it will take that long we will see uh hopefully with this stimulus a bounce coming out of the next 24 months but really to layer in the meetings market and international it still will be a five-year recovery this stimulus is critical in terms of shortening the recovery curve uh you know with the near term uh so that we can compete visa be our competition i have more detail that we can follow up with your office that breaks that down by region senator thank you so much karen potato president and ceo of visit california and if you'd like to submit your question your comment for our economic roundtable the impact of the covet-induced recession on the hospitality and tourism industries please email us right now your questions your comments or concerns senator.maguire senate.ca.gov

questions comments concerns please email us senator.maguire at senate.ca.gov we look forward to hearing from you john 60 seconds john 29 year career with a disneyland resort hollywood uh california adventure as well john talk to us we've been hearing a lot how this is this covet induced recession has impacted businesses uh hoteliers retail uh restaurants but it's also impacted the the absolute it's been devastating for the um absolutely devastating for the livelihoods of uh hospitality workers 60 seconds tell us about this because it you've never seen anything like it in your career absolutely uh in 1955 when walt disney opened disneyland he came up with terms for a specific reason we are cast members we are not employees we don't wear a uniform we wear a costume it's because we enter that burn we cross that berm and we leave the real word and our job is to entertain to act and put on a show for these guests we um it takes a special type of person to do that someone that's giving and having the rug pulled out from so many of us at march when the park was closed with 32 000 cast members employed in anaheim uh 4 500 of those teamsters and they're just devastated the stories as i read a little bullet put heart wrenching they are affected mentally psychologically physically financially uh there's you know their hope wondering anticipation of opening uh it looks good with the with the vaccine looks with the cases down but there's still this question of when do we open when how am i going to make my next the rent payment so many concerns so many sad stories they're worried about their elderly parents and grandparents they're afraid to go out get a job and bring the virus home as one cast member said they're walking on eggshells they don't know what to do they're too young to get the vaccine uh just they've been following the rules they've been wearing their masks they've been socially distancing they've been staying home and they feel it's time to reward this with the time to open up time to open up the purse strings and assist them financially because uh there's nothing else for them left there it's been a year and uh you know when the government shuts it down they've got to take the issue to help them no absolutely that's john de florio he is a teamster shop steward uh and works with cast members at disneyland for the last 29 years thank you so much john uh we are now going to go back to carolyn pateta we're taking your questions at senator.maguire

synod.ca.gov thank you we're getting inundated with questions we are so appreciative carolyn this is coming in from the uh ceo of the sausalito chamber and this is coming in from julie in good afternoon julie julie says the perception is that sausalito has money but what people do not realize is that most business owners are not rich but they may serve the well to do she wants to know how are you going to help small communities like sausalito recover through this campaign so again miss pateta this is not just about urban centers yes it will be focused on urban centers but candidly if we're looking at in-state travel the los angeles market is going to benefit tremendously san diego is going to benefit tremendously in kinderley everything north of the golden gate bridge the north coast folks want to come to the redwoods they want to go to the coast we know that the wine country is going to benefit significantly so talk to us how would this initiative calling all californians it's 45 million help small communities yeah thanks for that senator and julie for your question it's an excellent one and love sausalito i'm there all the time it's one of my favorite places and and i you know you know as well as i do it is so conducive to the types of travel that people are interested right now that being you know again i hate to be you know this over and over but the road trip initiative our job at visit california is to drive demand for visitation or travel to california and inspire them through a hub and spoke strategy of linking both urban cores and what we call beyond the gateways in terms of experiences the other attractive experience about sausalito is the incredible arts and culture scene as well as culinary scene it's one of our top destination drivers foodies are one of the highest per capita spenders in terms of visitors and we will be leaning into a culinary initiative as an additional layer with the stimulus money to try to generate demand as we have in the past with our many partnerships uh in the culinary space and miss matetta just another question to follow up on this after the 9 11 attacks folks did not want to get on an airplane rightfully so a lot of folks were scared same thing different scenario now uh we believe that air travel won't return for uh previous uh pre-copied levels for at least another half decade business travel may not recover for another decade but what we do know is after a tragedy like what we're seeing now folks will travel close to home so why is this money well spent because you know you've seen this people will travel close to home whether it's yosemite heading down to disneyland going to theme parks in san diego talk to us about that research that you've seen and and the data that proves that out i i agree and concur with you senator they do but they need to be reminded to reminded that it's okay to travel close to home when other nearby states are open and there's an option just to jump on an airplane or drive out of state so that's an important component about this campaign effort as well as our initiative and messaging around responsible travel so as we go into this phase we'll be really emphasizing responsible travel it's part of our end card and our lock up in many of these campaign layers and we'll want to work with our local constituencies and tourism industry in these local areas to remind people about responsible travel so that our prospective visitors our california fellow californians feel safe that the travel industry is taking care of their needs and safety so that that'll be an important message as well we invite sausalito and all communities to work with us cooperatively through these channels again that very robust own content channel we can reach thousands upon thousands of visitors through digital social and our newsletter efforts where visitors want specific information like what sausalito has to offer or amplifying your instagram feeds etcetera that's karen potato president ceo visit california next question comes in from uh perez khan asking what are the prospects of giving owner of hospitality businesses a tax break in california thank you and i'm going to turn it over to mr patel in a moment look the state of california is obviously focused on economic recovery in fact uh just on monday we've invested 9.6 billion the largest economic recovery package uh in generations we just invested 9.6 billion focus on small business recovery focus on tax cuts so for example we're advancing a minimum of 2 billion in tax cuts if a local business received the ppp the paycheck protection protection plan from the federal government you can write off up to 150 000 on your state side of taxes on if you receive that ppp that's absolutely critical and what we know is hundreds of thousands of businesses across the state receive the ppp in addition uh for small businesses there are fee waivers if you have uh if you are a barber shop if you're a cosmetology business if you are a bar or restaurant you will not have to pay your state permit fees to abc to the the board of cosmetology for the next two years small businesses can also apply up to a twenty five thousand dollar grant don't have to pay it back we just invested two billion dollars to be able to advance additional small business grants but the challenge that we have is the tourism industry has been just hit so incredibly hard six hundred thousand folks six hundred thousand workers remain on unemployment a third of all workers on state unemployment are from the hospitality and tourism industries and what we're going to hear from mr patel right now is there is without this initiative it's a bleak future mr patel talk to us about the importance of this 45 million investment to be able to get for example southern california going again mr patel i think carolyn uh hit the nail on the head when she pointed out that we want to keep the californians traveling within the state they have other options they might want to go to nevada arizona but if we can get californians at least start traveling here first and realize how wonderful the state we have as it was pointed out we're very blessed uh with what we have the natural beauty of the physical beauty but i think most importantly what we have is the people i think california has wonderful people and i think the people who work at disneyland that work at the other convention centers um they welcome people to come here and people want that um back and speaking of the tax benefits it's they're great but if i have no revenue a tax benefit doesn't do me any good 100 and we want to say thank you to mr patel melissa patel is the president of castle in his suites right across from disneyland uh very good point mr patel uh this is a roundtable conversation with tourism leaders uh leaders of hospitality worker unions and they're just so grateful that you're with us here we have about another five minutes left we want to do a lightning round of questions so here we go we're getting to our next question this is from david uh carolyn pateta president ceo of visit california david says are we losing visitation to other states right now how much revenue and or tax revenue are we losing to neighboring states in states like florida currently miss potato yeah great question david for the first time in our history when we were locked down and other states were open this is now at the beginning of covid so say march april may of june of last year we started tracking what we call leakage and we could at one point the height was about two billion dollars a week of leakage we still have those numbers for reference if you're interested but we are able to look at a granular level of who's leaving the state and maybe bringing back the bug you know we've been so safe with all of our protocols people should feel good about traveling uh in california even with the fact that there's so many opportunities given our you know the the state department of public health still urging travel within 120 miles you know so we want to be mindful of that but so many opportunities but yes people are leaving i also want to note right now uh the airline situation uh florida has uh restored 70 percent of their lift that's not even load factors that's just lyft while california stuck down at 48 with lower load factors so we're looking at all of this as well as the meetings issue uh and know for sure that yeah we're absolutely losing visitation uh miss pateta uh 30 seconds on this we're still getting a lot of questions coming in about event guidelines ms patel that's something that's been focusing on i know we don't have an exact timeline but this is absolutely an issue that is being addressed right now uh miss pateta 30 seconds on event guidelines i know you don't have a date for that but uh i know you can assure folks that this is being looked at yeah absolutely i i am pleased that i know discussions are underway uh now with the state of california government obviously we're the non-profit marketing arm but we are in discussions with them so you know i i hope it's imminent you know that the guidelines come out in the next several weeks or you know month or two uh before we get into the summer season frankly guidelines are critical because it will stem the tide and the industry knows this who's listening is if we at least have guidelines then we can start to talk to major convention planners we're going to stick with carolyn potenta carolyn you are getting a lot of questions so we're going to now go up to the north coast uh carolyn we have a question about tourism uh cannabis tourism uh do you plan to integrate cannabis tourism uh in your relaunch plan i i think that it's gonna benefit just by the focus of some of the um more uh cannabis rich areas in our state but miss pateta uh that's coming in from jim yeah we're really yielding to our local communities on how they position their experiences and their product uh because some communities are really leaning into that and that product is front center and other communities are are not they're just like we have some wine communities for example or communities that promote the coast every part of california has different core brand components so we are really looking to those local communities of how they want to be positioned and then we will follow that instruction uh this is the carolyn poteta show ladies and gentlemen coming in from lowell in ferndale uh he owns the victoria inn and then i want to go to a similar question from amanda um so lowell asks how can we overcome our state's brand drop since we've been poorly compared to 47 of the other 50 states how we how can we combat that brain drop uh lowell asked and then i want to go to another question from amanda amanda says what does the california economy stand to lose without stimulus for our tourism industry let's go to lowell and then amanda karen liberta president and ceo of visit california so again these are such great questions excellent questions as a matter of fact um we just laid out for our board for the fy 21 22 marketing strategies and then and there was three and the first one so the very important first one in terms of strategies is cultivate the california brand first and foremost build brand health we all know we have been suffering from brand tarnish whether it's coveted lockdowns wildfires public power safety shutoffs etc we are experiencing brand tarnish that's very real where we're looking first and foremost to lift and amplify a glow effect is the a campaign that i didn't talk too much about during this town hall but is very front and center it's called what if and it talks about the power of possibility in california because if is in our middle name of california so we um are launching that spring effort uh without stimulus we go completely dark on that messaging but it's the number one vehicle we have to fight direct brand tarnish and in our focus group research we found that it it provides significant brand lift so excellent question senator can you repeat the second question amanda asks what happens to the overall california economy if we don't have a tourism stimulus similar to this effort well i think what we saw just like in 911 or other destinations that failed to promote themselves we have real world case studies from our community in san diego that had to take a pause on advertising around their tourism improvement district as well as a case study in colorado where they shut down the tourism advertising and lost 30 percent share of their market in just the first two years and didn't regain that share for a decade they did you know they had to then turn it back on so we know what happens because the consumer has an always-on mentality they are being hit with advertising constantly and we see from our visitor tracking research if we are not out there with our multi-layered campaigns they will go elsewhere this is the age of social and digital media and the millennial as our major consumer that's carolyn pateta president and ceo uh visit california uh we are gonna need to be able to start wrapping up uh but what we wanna be able to say is we need your help we need your help to be able to secure secure this 45 million dollars it is in a bill it's called senate bill 285.

uh what we'd like to be able to see is that these dollars could be secured prior to july which would allow uh the advertising to be able to commence here for the summer season and into the fall if you'd like to join us on this please email us info caltravel.org email if you can help us be able to get this legislation passed to be able to invest in a data-driven strategy for economic recovery to get hospitality workers back to work to reopen our retail uh businesses in our hotel years please email we need you info caltravel.org uh finally carolyn uh this is coming in from um miss ferrati what will covet 19 conditions have to be before air travel for tourism be permitted uh between states and when we see that full recovery for air travel well i i think we all know air travel will lag beyond other types of transportation but we are already seeing a rise in air travel and engagement around uh air travel particularly domestically as we go into the spring and we're seeing uh vaccinations rise as well as you know that developing herd immunity uh i i think we'll see significant shift in air travel as we go into late spring and summer we are still a long ways away from international inbound travel as well as the discussions around creating consistency around either covid testing or quarantines the travel industry is supportive of safe travel and covid testing if we're testing and we know or there's vaccine vaccination uh internationally we're hopeful that we're not having to take on assumptions of quarantines on top of that so that's the discussion that's taking place at a global level right now carolyn potato president ceo of visit california we want to say thank you all of you for joining us again we're going to need your assistance info caltravel.org email us if you could assist uh in helping advance uh this request we'd like to be able to look to each of our panelists for quick 30 second closing comments and again we want to say thank you to each and every one of you that took time out of your wednesday afternoon to be able to advance this critically important discussion to help kick-start not just the tourism economy let's be candid the tourism and hospitality economy it's one of the largest economic drivers and employers in the state if we have a healthy tourism economy that means california is booming as well so we're going to go to closing comments let's first start with rhonda salisbury she is ceo uh for visit yosemite 30 seconds closing comments thank you senator um i just want to say that one of the things that california does best is partner and co-op and visit california is is incredible at that all the tourism agencies around the state we are we are friends we are colleagues we care we understand what's going on and we are um very supportive of this bill and a visit california and our partnerships and let's get california healthy again and we appreciate your efforts ms salisbury thank you so much miss salisbury as the ceo visit yosemite we are so appreciative of your partnership here today we're now going to go to closing comments from mr patel he's president of castle inn and suites a family-owned hotel uh really legendary institution in the city of anaheim mr patel closing comments uh thank you senator for all that you're doing it's very much appreciated thank you carolyn for visit california and working with the local visitor visitor and convention bureaus and i'm looking forward to bringing my family my employees back to work so everybody spread the word visit california love love it mr patel great job thank you we're going to now turn it over to horatio cortez for 20 years he's been working in the hospitality industry right now he's at the seneca santa clara county convention center mr cortez uh 30 seconds closing comments it is it means so much to us that you're willing to be here today to tell your story to tell the story of your co-workers mr cortez final words thank you the closing 30 seconds that i can say um but we got to move forward to this is going to take from the organized point of view which is as long as we organize keep it in the same steady pace be safe and we need to support this bill totally we believe in implementing implementing this bill totally will help ahead of the time instead of waiting for that car to happen that's what i got to say invest in california thank you so much uh well dan said mr cortez uh invest in california let's turn it over to john diflorio uh nearly a 30 year almost 30 years uh with the disney family and the resorts in anaheim uh now leading the way with the teamsters and cast members mr deforeo 32nd closing comment thank you so much senator as caroline had said the leakage to other states we've with the the two parks in anaheim closed tours only option was going to orlando orlando's been open since july safe no incidents we'll implement that here i've had an opportunity to personally experience the downtown disney venue that's open the safety precautions are amazing uh even waiting to get up there was a 90 minute wait to get in people want to go but there's social distancing waiting to get in there's temperature screenings there's sand sanitizers hand washing stations social distancing it's very safe i felt very comfortable going and so did all the other tourists that were there waiting to go in they missed disney so much that even walking through the parks not having the rise open at least the stores the shops restaurants are open because that's getting one step closer to the magic that they've missed for uh almost a year mr de florio thank you for being with us uh and for your insight today along with mr cortez uh final words from carolyn patel president and ceo of visit california well thank you senator for your incredible leadership and the importance of this initiative i just want to say that california is like any other retail product

2021-03-01 01:07

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