The Calaveras Visitors Bureau aims to promote tourism in Calaveras County through its visitor center, website, marketing campaigns, and partnerships. It is funded through TOT taxes, membership dues, and gift shop sales. About 50% of its annual $300,000-$350,000 budget is spent on marketing activities like producing an activities guide, exhibiting at travel shows, digital advertising, and social media promotion. The Bureau works to maximize exposure and leverage funds through regional partnerships.

1. Board of Supervisors Presentation July 30, 2013
The Calaveras Visitors Bureau Mission Statement: To serve
our members and community by supporting sustainable
economic growth through the promotion of tourism in
Calaveras County.

2. CALAVERAS VISITOR CENTER
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Is open 7 days a week proudly
serving visitors & residents: 7,455
for 2013.
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Provides 24 hour information:
phone, bulletin board & website.
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Includes a gift shop selling
Calaveras County souvenirs
(predominantly frog
related), covering the cost of our
lease.
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Sells tickets to member events.
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Keeps track of available hotel
rooms and helps visitors book their
overnight stays.
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Houses the Calaveras Visitors

3. ORGANIZATION & FUNDING
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501c6 non-profit association governed by a Board of
Directors elected by member businesses.
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Funding & Income – approximately $300,000 to $350,000
annually
County TOT (33% of the 6% tax)
City TOT (13% of the 10% tax)
Membership includes ad sales
Partnerships - coop advertising
Gift shop sales - covers our lease

4. OUR BUDGET: EXPENSES
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Approximately 50% of our budget currently goes to marketing.
With fixed overhead, any additional financial investment goes
directly into marketing. -annual-budget.
Merchandise
Marketing
Office
Payroll
To see full budget details go to: www.gocalaveras.com/calaveras-visitors-bureau-annualbudget

5. 2013 -14 MARKETING PLAN
INCLUDES:
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Design, production, distribution of 75,000 Activities
Guides
Calaveras booth in the California State Fair Counties
Exhibits
Exhibits at the most productive Travel and Trade
Shows
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Bay Area Travel & Adventure Show
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Sunset Celebrations
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LA Travel & Adventure Show
Strategic online, print & radio advertising
Website upgrades and updates
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Mobile app
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Interactive online map
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SEO and SEM
Regularly scheduled social media marketing, blogs
and press releases
Partnering with local, regional and state marketing
organizations to leverage our marketing dollars
Media FAM (familiarization) trips

6. ACTIVITIES GUIDE
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75,000 Activities Guides:
Distributed through:
• Fulfillment from ad reader response
• Various Gold Country Visitor
Centers and California Welcome
Centers (California’s State Visitors
Centers)
• County rack distribution program
• Travel trade shows
• Member businesses
• Media & tour operator fulfillment
• California State Fair
• Distribution at Bay Area
Corporations & sports shops (key
target drive market)
Digital version also available on CVB
website and issuu.com where it’s fully

7. 2013 -14 STATE FAIR BOOTH:
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Nearly 700,000 people attend the
State Fair over 2-1/2 weeks.
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Award winning booths with
interactive games and interesting
facts, create good will and entice
visitors to Calaveras County.
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For 2013 we are using a tracking
mechanism for measuring ROI –
VIP activation cards, capturing
visitor stats online.
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The Calaveras exhibit won
Gold and Best Visitor
Experience.

8. CVB WEBSITE: GOCALAVERAS.COM
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Lists & links to every tourism related
business and activity in Calaveras
County that we know of.
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Provides the most comprehensive
calendar of activities for the county.
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Posts regular, tourism-related blogs
including interviews with member
businesses.
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Members Corner now includes
complete board meeting
information, budget, agendas and
tourism stats (best place for BOS to
see what the CVB is currently
working on).

9. CVB WEBSITE: Investments for 20132014
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Mobile app
• Approximately 30% of our web
visitors are accessing our site
from mobile devices.
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Interactive map
• Shows visitors what’s available
from any given location
• Easy user-created itineraries
• Includes trail maps and all
recreational attributes in
Calaveras
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SEO and SEM
• Site will rank higher in search
engines
• Targeted advertising follows
visitors as a reminder to visit

10. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
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The CVB Facebook page has
nearly 9,000 likes. We post to it at
least once daily to encourage visitor
engagement.
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A Youtube channel has been
created with videos featuring
Calaveras County – many uploaded
by visitors.
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We have 2 Vimeo channels: one
contains episodes of Tourism
Matters in which we interview
member businesses, the other
features videos on Calaveras travel.
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The CVB Twitter account consists
of an automatic feed that posts

11. TRAVEL & MEDIA SHOWS
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We only attend the events that
have the largest attendance within
our drive markets and/or produce
the greatest ROI:
• LA Travel & Adventure Show
• Bay Area Travel & Adventure
Show – direct to consumer
• Sunset Celebration Weekend
• Visit California Media
Receptions – direct to media

12. PRINT & ONLINE ADVERTISING
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Sunset Magazine
Sacramento Magazine
Official State Visitors Guide
Facebook
Google Pay Per Click
Visit California website

13. STAYING CURRENT: Conventions
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Destination marketing is constantly
evolving, which is why we attend
conventions and summits – to keep up
on the latest marketing trends at:
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The WACVB (Western Area
Convention & Visitors Bureau) Tech
Summit and CEO Forum.
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Visit California’s Outlook Forum
which gives us the latest State
tourism stats and current marketing
goals.
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CalTravel Conference which
provides the opportunity to network
and learn best practices from our
peers.

14. LEVERAGING OUR MARKETING
DOLLARS
Destination
marketing is not
cheap, so we work
with our regional
partners to
purchase larger ad
space, share trade
show booth
space, distribute
each others’
activities guides
and more. Our
marketing partners
include: