LTVA’s No. 1 goal — bring in overnight guests to S. Shore
By Kathryn Reed
STATELINE – Generating room nights. That’s the overall goal of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority.
If the South Shore tourism agency can get people to spend the night, it means hotel taxes for Douglas County and South Lake Tahoe, probably sales tax for both entities, and those same people spending dollars in restaurants, on recreational activities, spa treatments, you name it.
With a budget of $4.3 million – 43 percent of which comes from the Tahoe Douglas Visitors Authority and 41percent from the South Lake Tahoe Tourism Improvement District – the LTVA is spending more on luring people to the area.
The celebrity golf tournament each July in Stateline remains one of LTVA's main events. Photo/LTN file
Carol Chaplin, executive director of the LTVA as well as the TDVA, gave a presentation last week to Soroptimist International South Lake Tahoe about the rebranding of the area as Tahoe South as well as an update on the agency.
She is slated to be one of the first presenters to the South Lake Tahoe City Council on March 6. The agenda for the 9am meeting at Lake Tahoe Airport says she will talk about destination marketing, the past year and current initiatives.
Tahoe South is something Lake Tahoe News first wrote about in December, but is something that has been in the works for a while.
In the first month of LTVA’s relaunched website, the number of unique visitors has increased by 13 percent. The site gets about 300,000 page views a month.
While putting heads in beds is the ultimate goal, the other goals of the LTVA are to spur economic growth, attract visitors, and build awareness and appreciation for Lake Tahoe’s natural environment.
The South Shore and North Shore work together on many levels, but when it comes to attracting the drive-up market they are competitors.
“Cross-over to the wild side” is LTVA’s ad slogan to show that the South Shore is little bit more fun, is how Chaplin put it.
While the talk is about getting away from gaming as the focus and instead having the outdoors being the emphasis, the fact is gaming is still well represented in the promotional material LTVA publicizes.
LTVA is still in the event business, though they have to be of a bigger variety that generates those room nights.
It’s being involved with American Century Championship which attracted nearly 40,000 people in 2011 and Iron Girl triathlon that had 600 competitors in 2011 – three times what it had the first year in 2010 – that LTVA focuses on.
Chaplin said she is talking with Amgen officials about bringing the Tour de California back to Tahoe – ideally with cyclists actually riding – in 2013.
The area is one of five being considered for the Peace and Sport event.
More emphasis is also being placed on the wedding co-op to tout the area a destination for brides and grooms.
A facilities analysis was recently completed that will soon be put into a report that will give LTVA a definitive list of regional amenities to know what events it should or should not go after.
Who cares what their goal is? Their results are killing you South Lake Tahoe!
Centralized Government run business, didn’t work in Russia, doesn’t work in Tahoe.
If you continue to do what has brought you to where you are you will continue to get what you have now.
Failure!
The solution – Free enterprise; get Government and Tax dollars out of the market.
FYI – Before the socialists and Marxists start in – Free enterprise doesn’t mean unregulated enterprise!
Respecting the earth and freedom can go hand in hand.
Just to clarify the city of south lake Tahoe provides no funding for the LTVA. The primary funding sources are the lodging industry on the California side and the casino industry on the Nevada side via the Tahoe Douglas visitors authority.
Just to clarify –
Taxes are taken from tax payers and given to the LTVA, a quasi government agency that has helped create the disastrous economic situation SLT is in.
Private sector built this country and the public sector is destroying it… it’s history all over again.
Any Questions?
Carl you’re such a Robot!
it would be good for our town if this story is true about the LTVA changeing there direction
instead of marketing time shares to marketing drive up visitors just like the old days
Why come here stay over night when you can go so where else closer, nicer,cheaper, get better customer service, stay longer down where it’s already turning spring with blooming flowers ,nice shorts weather,boats don’t have to be frisk to put in the water.
The locals been doing it for years now.
Been really nice down there, the air clean as it gets for this time year.There something to do besides slide in mucky,mud,doggy snow,washed out roads, sidewalks,and you can buy dinner with a bottle wine for under 50 dollars each.
Cheap retail to bring back to town,grab some better deals with meats, vino,fuel, go again next week work on the tan lines at the beach.
Winter over if you want call it that.The only thing the snow does now is hold up the business for summer activities.
Then when it gets nice here ,all we got is roads ,traffic while they fix our pond water %,lake run off in the name Science.
“Crossover to the wild side” is an unimaginative theme with negative sexual innuendo for some with long memories, and provides the community with no positive net gain, reinforcement, or promotion of Lake Tahoe’s unique natural resources or extraordinary features that set it apart from Camden, New Jersey where a “walk on the wild side” would be an invitation for trouble.
Can you imagine Hawaii adopting such an ill-fitting theme? No, they’re too smart for that.
What would you suggest? “Crossover to the Boring, asexual, not too many scary “other” people side of Tahoe.”?
BRING MONEY
The slogan our community had forty years ago is a better fit for marketing the myriad recreation opportunities available.
“America’s all-year playground” tells people that we are not just a ski town, not just beaches and not just gaming.
Update the logo and use this descriptive slogan and people will know we are open for business 365 days a year.
We are open 52 weekends plus holidays a year, your math terrible.
This very truthful…the golden days are gone, and the over expensive days don’t ring the bells anymore.
A town with funky shows, no dinner shows,old deco like a Kit cat ranch with grand mother bakng cookies, that’s not what they want eat!
Save the ice cream ,nuts for the the real places that have a great menu of what people want, and it’s really not even close in this red neck town retreads.