TOURISM : Anaheim’s Visitor Bureau Changes Its Name, Broadens Marketing Strategy

The Anaheim Area Visitor & Convention Bureau is changing its name--and its mission.

Now the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau, the county’s largest agency dealing with the tourism and convention industry is aiming to unify the various forces that have built the region into a vacation destination.

As bureau President Charles Ahlers said, “This name change accurately reflects our overall marketing strategy.... It gives us an enhanced and defined identity.”

The change comes as politicians and business leaders are pondering how to market the county as a whole. People know Disneyland, the Mighty Ducks, even Mission San Juan Capistrano--but they have seldom been pitched as part of a single vacation package.

Former Disneyland President Jack Lindquist is heading a committee that will soon be making recommendations for enhancing countywide promotion. Until then, the name change by the county’s tourism group could help spark new thinking about ways to raise the county’s profile.

“By going beyond the boundaries (of Anaheim) and embracing a regional marketing concept,” Ahlers said, “we can strengthen ongoing marketing programs.”

The Anaheim bureau estimates that 37.8 million people visited Orange County last year for pleasure or business, generating $4.8 billion in spending. The tourism industry employs 146,000 workers.