Spending money to draw tourist dollars

Alicia Robinson

Developers have sown a crop of dragon’s teeth along the Orange County

coast, and they’re yielding new resorts and large hotels that have

Newport-Mesa’s tourism industry scrambling to beat back competition.

Local travel organizations are concerned about the new venues,

which include a 519-room Hyatt hotel in Huntington Beach and the

262-room Montage in Laguna Beach.

“We’re trying everything because it is very competitive,” said

Marta Hayden, executive director of the Newport Beach Conference and

Visitors Bureau.

Competitive was a word that came up often at a Newport Beach City

Council meeting last month, when the visitors bureau asked for and

received a larger percentage of the city’s hotel tax to fund its

marketing efforts.

Travel in general and business travel in particular have

diminished since 9/11, and more venues are competing for the smaller

pie that’s left, said Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce President

Richard Luehrs.

“I know that we don’t like to talk about this too much, but our

occupancy rate has diminished,” Luehrs said. “We’re not full by any

means. The consumer’s in a pretty good marketing position because

we’re desperate to have them stay.”

San Diego has been revitalizing its downtown and building new

hotels for the last two years, and Los Angeles is making a more

forceful play for tourist and business travel dollars, said Alan Reay

of Costa Mesa-based Atlas Hospitality Group, a hotel real estate

firm.

For now, the solution to increased competition is spending money

to make money. From the city to tourism organizations to developers

and hoteliers, everyone is eager to upgrade, build more and promote

themselves to remain a viable tourist destination.

The Hyatt Newporter is close to completing about $10 million in

renovations, and the Newport Beach Marriott is poised to launch a

$65-million overhaul.

In Costa Mesa, the tourism bureau got restaurants to offer dining

gift certificates as a perk to lure travelers, Costa Mesa Conference

and Visitor Bureau President Joe De Dio said.

“I know that we’re all aggressively pursuing business wherever it

may be,” De Dio said. “There’s no new [hotels] coming into our

market.”

The Newport Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau is about to roll

out upgrades to its website that will make it easier for travelers to

make reservations for hotels, cruises and special events, Hayden

said.

And of course, several developers want to give local tourism a

lift with new resort options. The Irvine Co. is preparing to open a

204-room resort at Pelican Hill Golf Club, Bayside Pacific LLC is

still pushing its $38-million Marina Park hotel and plans are being

kicked around for a luxury resort in Lido Marina Village.

If and when those projects get off the ground, tourism boosters

expect them to be a draw, but Hayden and Luehrs said the key to

remaining competitive is marketing.

“There’s a lot of marketing being done by other organizations,”

Luehrs said. “We need to be right there with them.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

[email protected].