The Solvang Conference & Visitors Bureau thanked the Mayor and City Council for funding that supports tourism in Solvang. The Bureau's mission is to boost Solvang's economy through tourism. It promotes Solvang through its website, social media, publications, and events like Taste of Solvang. The Bureau also brings tour groups and journalists to Solvang on familiarization trips. Its marketing efforts have increased tourism and supported nearly 1,000 local jobs.

1. Slide 1
Thanks to volunteer Board and thanks to Mayor and City
Council for reinvesting in tourism and granting the
Solvang Conference & Visitors Bureau our current fiscal
year budget. We Appreciate your votes!
1

2. 2
Slide 2

3. Slide 3
Our mission as the city’s marketing agency is to Boost
Solvang’s Economy through Tourism.
3

4. Slide 4
We don’t do it alone, of course. We thank each
organization here and dozens of local businesses and our
“partners in promotion”, helping the CVB leverage all
resources.
4

5. Slide 5
Tourism remains Solvang’s #1 industry – supporting nearly
1,000 jobs.
5

6. Slide 6
Solvang’s Visitor Center, served over 97,000 happy
travelers under the direction of Manager Dean Klitgaard.
We added three new ambassadors this year. Lana Clark,
our admin assistant sold Ad Board advertising space in the
Visitor Center to more than 40 local businesses.
6

7. Slide 7
Our popular free digest sized Visitor Guide - distributed at
visitor centers and upon request, general public, tour
operators and media.
We concluded our contract & advertisers will be happy to
hear we are supporting a single magazine with VisitSYV
that will feature two covers- one for Solvang.
We publish multiple collateral pieces including a new
“Eat, Drink & be Married.” Top 10 Reasons to tie the knot
aimed at the lucrative LGBT market.
7

8. Slide 8
We are proud of our # 1 ranking as the most visited
tourism related website in the Santa Ynez Valley.
8

9. Slide 9
We just soft launched a new beautiful responsive website
which resizes to mobile and tablet. Video plays
automatically when a person visits the website.
9

10. Slide 10
Over 40,000 people have signed up to receive our
Solvang monthly E-Newsletter. Approximately 350 local
business owners and manager and civic leaders receive
our quarterly B2B E-newsletter. We send electronic
surveys after our major events to receive feedback from
both the public and the business partners who
participated in n effort to continually upgrade and
improve our events.
10

11. Slide 11
Social Media marketing is another important facet of our
digital media marketing. We have seen tremendous
growth in our facebook numbers in likes, reach and
engagement.
11

12. Slide 12
We purchased the Experience Solvang app which was
created by Heather Bedford. The flowerpot directional
signs on each corner include the QRCode to both the
iPhone and Android version of the app. We have plans to
update the information as soon as possible and to offer
more advertising opportunities there, too.
12

13. SLIDE 13
Last summer we conducted 72 consumer interviews in LA
& San Jose as part of a branding study to gain insight to
travel decisions & perceptions. Those eye-opening results
launched new advertising creative aimed at visually
informing multiple audiences.
13

14. SLIDE 14
We placed 25 print and matching digital ads, not to
mention facebook, etc. Flexible artwork allows us to rotate
images depending on the outlet.
14

15. SLIDE 15
We hit our #1 international market Canada, heavily this
year. In addition to 2 travel publications, we secured a full
page within Toronto Star & National Post w/ 226K readers,
plus one month of animated spots underground PATH’s
100K people per day AND in frigid New York’s Times
Square for a week. (Times Square see 1.5 million people
per day.)
15

16. SLIDE 16
Next up- PR locally, our publicist, Laura Kath, Mariah
Marketing, pumped out significant stats. In addition to her
weekly Solvang blog we were named by USA TODAY &
Smarter Travel & Good Morning America as a top travel
destination The CVB inspired over 85 articles.
16

17. Slide 17
Other articles further from home included spectacular
coverage in Mexico, France & Denmark, making Solvang
an essential part of any California road trip.
17

18. SLIDE 18
Our PR firm in Denmark, Atlantic Link, keep connecting
Solvang to her mother country, via the travel trade, media
and consumers.
18

19. SLIDE 19
We host many FAMS- Familiarization site visits- annually.
Shown here are tour operators, state tourism reps and
journalists from 6 countries. (Chef/author Ole and
smørrebrød cooking class.)
19

20. SLIDE 20
The CVB pro-actively sought out opportunities to shine a
light on Solvang wile adding to our economy. These 4
conference brought good will & tons of media exposure.
20

21. SLIDE 21
Solvang was well represented at 6 tradeshows this year
with 103 travel appointments & hundreds of face-to-face
w/consumers.
21

22. SLIDE 22
Tiffany decided to get married and move to Michigan in
December. We searched and found a superb new Sales
Manager, Yvonne Crownover. Progress is being made with
40 leads for conferencing services for tour groups, we are
expanding Sales Lead Generation with our new website.
We are already working for Princess Cruise s to bring two
tours a day more than nine dates this fall. Dean and Doug,
visitor center ambassadors conducted eight walking tours
and Collette Tours had 22 dates for lunch.
22

23. SLIDE 23
The “Alliance” matching grant started 2 years ago by this
city council and has now grown to include Buellton VCB,
SB Vintners, and now aptly spearheaded by VisitSYV, your
regional marketing investment has garnered the following:
(see slide).
23

24. SLIDE 24
The Solvang CVB took advantage of the SIDEWAYS 10th
Anniversary last fall, along with the county partners.
We also produced Julefest & worked with Parks & Rec to
bring Santa to town.
24

25. SLIDE 25
This year’s 23rd Taste of Solvang saw new events via MUSE
Event Planners. Attendees survey said 84% shopped while
here and 55% were new to Solvang. We sold tickets online
from September – March 21, using Square Up Market.
Both business participants and ticket holders received
electronic surveys asking about their TOS experience.
25

26. SLIDE 26
It’s been a good year for getting in touch with the locals.
We helped get the word out about our drought to area
hotels with the help of Shelby Sims from VisitSYV. We co-
sponsored the Clutternomics Speaker at the Solvang
Chamber of Commerce Expo and proudly helped launch
the New Clean Air Express )CAE) Saturday service
between the Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Barbara. Thanks
Mayor! The CAE costs only $7. per person one way.
26

27. SLIDE 27
Last but not least, we helped bring over one hundred
Danish athletes & their coaches to Solvang to rest and
practice for the LA2015 Special Olympics World Games.
27

28. SLIDE 28
FOLLOW us on Facebook and Twitter, and submit your
tourism related events at SolvangUSA.com/events/submit-
an-event/ to have them listed in our ever popular calendar
of events.
THANK You!
28