The joint advertising campaign, titled “Happiness is Calling,” was reinstated after Mayor Bob Filner signed the operating agreement with the San Diego Tourism Marketing District, releasing critical funding for the SDTA’s marketing programs.

The campaign puts San Diego back in the marketplace advertising our destination in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix, and consists of television commercials running May 6 through June 9, 2013, on major network and cable TV stations. A digital ad campaign will also run concurrently on Hulu, Fox, ABC and other online channels throughout May and June.

We are fortunate and grateful to SeaWorld who have been steadfast partners of the SDTA for the last 25 years. Working together, we have been able to stretch the reach and frequency of San Diego’s advertising efforts imperative to driving visitor demand.

Eric Lund, who has served as the Vice President of Membership, Community Relations, Visitor & Member Services for the last three years, accepted a leadership position at the East County Chamber of Commerce. Eric will lead the 600-member chamber that represents San Diego’s East County region, and his last day at the SDTA is May 15, 2013. Eric has made significant contributions to the SDTA, and we look forward to continuing to work with him in his new role at the East County Chamber.

In addition, Barb Greenhalgh was named Vice President of Sales for the western region. Barb previously served as Regional Director of Sales for six years and has been with the SDTA for nine years. Passionate about her work, she is a strong goal-oriented leader and assumed her new responsibilities last month.

Also effective in April, Benjamin Eastman was promoted from Travel Trade Development Manager to Director of Travel Trade Development. He has been with the SDTA for 5 years and has proven leadership capabilities, dedication and market knowledge.

Finally, Brian Hilemon was recently promoted to Director of Marketing Partnerships. Brian joined the SDTA’s marketing team as the Interactive Content Editor in 2006, and the next year was promoted to Membership Manager. His work with the SDTA’s 1,100 members contributed greatly to delivering strong revenue growth for our organization.

The daily service has been delayed for the last several months due to mechanical issues with Boeing’s 787 (Dreamliner) planes.  The FAA has been reviewing the safety of the plane and recently determined that Boeing had met the standard for safe operations and cleared the planes for flight again.

Japan Airlines will be rigorously testing their specific Dreamliner planes over the next month before opening up the trans-continental flights on June 1st.

For additional details, you can read JAL’s news release:  http://press.jal.co.jp/en/release/201304/002495.html

By way of background, the TMD model has been extremely successful as a means to promote San Diego as a premier travel destination. So successful, the City of San Diego voted last year to approve a new TMD with a term of 39.5 years starting January 1, 2013. While collections for the new TMD began on January 1, 2013, there is a delay in release of those funds due to procedural issues. As a result, our funding from the TMD is expected to be temporarily disrupted.

Since the majority of our funding comes from the TMD, we have taken steps to reduce our expenses and have placed temporary holds on expenditures such as media buys, staff travel and some vendor contracts. We expect resolution of this issue and the release of TMD funds for critical sales and marketing programs shortly.

We appreciate your support during this time of transition and we will continue to keep you apprised with updates as needed.

Date & Place:

• Thursday, February 14, 2013
• Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina, 1380 Harbor Island Drive, San Diego 92101

Schedule:

• 8:00 AM – 9:45 AM – General Meeting
• 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM – Workshops (topics include Citywide Hotel Update; The Art of Story-Selling San Diego; and Digital Marketing 2.0)

Featured Speakers:

• Steve Hood – Senior Vice President, Research, Smith Travel Research
• Lorin Stewart – Executive Director, San Diego Tourism Marketing District
• Joe Terzi – President and CEO, San Diego Tourism Authority

As an organization that embraces a progressive culture, our new name now reflects the prevailing corporate naming of destination marketing organizations, domestically and internationally.  Our role as the “official travel resource of the San Diego region” has grown, and the name change better represents the key role we play as the authority on all things related to San Diego’s tourism industry.  The new name is direct, easy to understand and recognizable, which is vital as San Diego becomes more visible on the global tourism stage.

As the sales and marketing engine for San Diego, it is our mission to drive visitor demand to economically benefit the region.  In 2011, tourism generated $17 billion in economic impact and supported 160,000 region-wide jobs.  Although our name will change, our strong organizational commitment to produce successful results for the San Diego community remains the same.

We look forward to 2013 and working to position San Diego as one of the world’s leading destinations.

In addition, in October, the U.S. Army issued an internal memo barring employees from attending private-sector conferences through 2012, characterizing them as “expensive” and “not required in most cases.”  The USTA is commissioning a study to show how meetings contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of the federal workforce and provide important services to the taxpayer and private sector.  The report will be complete in early 2013.