The San Diego Tourism Authority’s announcement this week about their big increase in spending this year comes just weeks before a big decision by voters in San Diego.
The Tourism Authority will be spending 25 million dollars this year, about 5-million dollars more than last year to attract more visitors to San Diego with new TV commercials around the country
And they’re probably hoping that the theme of the new ad campaign, “Something to Smile About” is a precursor of what they hope will happen in the upcoming election on March 3rd.
That’s when voters will decide on Measure C, that if approved, will increase hotel room taxes to pay for expanding the San Diego Convention Center and paying for fixing city streets and helping move more people who are homeless off the streets.
The vote on Measure C and the increase in tourism advertising come at a critical time.
While a record 36-million visitors came to San Diego last year, the competition for tourism dollars with Anaheim, L-A has heated up.
And we’re getting closer to when San Diego’s largest convention, Comic Con, will make its big decision: whether to leave us for another city with a larger convention center, which could mean as much as a 200-million dollar loss to our economy each year.
If Measure C is approved, Comic Con will likely stay and chances increase that other large conventions will come to San Diego.And the backers of the hotel tax say that for the health of our economy, that would be something to smile about.
(Photo credit San Diego Tourism Authority)