Keep 'Em Coming Back

WHILE SOME SAN DIEGANS make plans for a summer change of scenery, a population many times larger than our own will be dropping in on us—tasting their first fish tacos, kayaking the bay and receiving the obligatory Shamu splash.

In 2005, more than 10 million visitors got a little San Diego sand in their shoes in the summer months of June, July and August alone. They contributed about $1.9 billion of the $5.8 billion visitors spent here last year, an increase of more than 5 percent over 2004.

“We are in one of those times when more people are traveling to San Diego for pleasure, meetings and as part of groups,” says Reint Reinders, who’s leaving the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau (ConVis) this summer after 15 years as president. “And the economy is strong, so everything is pointing in the right direction and providing good results for everybody in the local tourism industry.”

Reinders points to room nights sold as a measure of tourism vitality. In 2005, about 14.4 million rooms were sold, an increase of 4 percent over 2004. The addition of 576,000 room nights came as San Diego hoteliers raised rates 7.4 percent, for an average rate of $122 per night.

The positive trend shows no sign of letting up in the first quarter. Through the first three months of 2006, 5.4 million visitors—an increase of almost 5 percent over the same period last year—dropped anchor here, spending $1.36 billion (up almost 9 percent). They accounted for 3.5 million room nights (a 4 percent increase).

“When you can charge 8 percent more for hotels and add 4 percent more people—on some big numbers to begin with—I think you’re in a healthy environment,” Reinders says.

But while the view from on high depicts a tourism industry in high gear, a closer look shows San Diego’s visitor attractions, as a group, are stuck in neutral. Of the 27 million visitors in 2005, about 12 million took time to visit the seven attractions that make up the ConVis heavy hitters: SeaWorld, the San Diego Zoo, the Wild Animal Park, Legoland California, Cabrillo National Monument, the San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum and Mission Bay Center. Attendance for 2005 was flat compared to the year before. In the first quarter of 2006, attraction attendance is up 2.8 percent.

“We have wonderful attractions,” says Reinders, “but the attractions are going through some tougher times just to hold their numbers. They have to invest dramatically year after year to add more to the value, because people have been there and done that, and you have to be the latest and greatest to get people to come back.”

AS MARKETING DIRECTOR for the San Diego Zoo, Ted Molter is looking for ways to increase the current zoo attendance of 3.2 million, which, he says, is “where we’ve been for the last couple of years. We’ve been flat, but that’s not a situation unique to us; it’s also true for other zoos and attractions.”

Molter believes he has a winner in Monkey Trails, the zoo’s newest exhibit, which features a variety of monkeys in enclosures less like cages, an industry trend. The accompanying ad campaign features monkeys employing all sorts of human ruses to get to San Diego, a favored destination.

The campaign plays not only to tourists but to locals, a significant portion of the zoo’s attendance base. Molter says that more than 250,000 households representing 600,000 people are zoo members, entitled to repeat visits. For out-of-towners, the zoo participates in a number of “bundling” programs with other local attractions and regional theme parks, such as Disneyland and Universal Studios in Los Angeles.

Tourist attractions are dealing with a double whammy of less leisure time and greater competition, Molter says. The effect of gas price hikes into the $3.50-a-gallon range is still an unknown, but Molter says he foresees little impact in San Diego, which draws most of its visitors from less than a day’s drive away and from a large population center that includes Southern California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

One way to increase revenue in times of flat attendance is to up-sell visitors who increasingly seek “experiences” on their vacations. At the Wild Animal Park, visitors can get up close with a giraffe on a Photo Caravan that runs $90 per person. No need to rush home—the park will put visitors up for the night in field tents that can be equipped with a queen-size bed, starting at $129.

Attraction operators must also pay increasing attention to families’ schedules, particularly during the school year. “It’s a rapidly changing world,” says Molter. “Typically, the summer season has been from Memorial Day to Labor Day, but some kids go back to school earlier.” This year, Molter says the zoo began ramping up summer marketing at the end of April. “People are planning their summer vacations weeks in advance, so we want to get our message out earlier,” he says.

SAN DIEGO’S OTHER TOP-DRAWER attractions are also in upgrade mode to add traffic. The Blackstone Group, the New York–based private investment firm that bought Carlsbad’s Legoland California in July of last year, is pumping $10 million into Pirate Shores, an aquatic adventure promising water-cannon battles against buccaneers.

Pirate Shores lets visitors “take control of the ride,” says Legoland’s Kelly Spicer. Attendance at the kiddie theme park grew by 2 percent in 2005, an addition of 28,000 over 2004’s 1.4 million. More than half (56 percent) of Legoland visitors come from outside San Diego County. Spicer says Legoland benefits from its North County location, because it’s an easy drive of about an hour from Anaheim and Disneyland.

Now in its seventh year, Legoland is trying to become a household name. “We’re still a baby by theme park standards,” says Spicer. “Our biggest challenge in the next three to five years is to continue to reach out and brand the park.”

Though SeaWorld won’t talk figures, marketing vice president Ed Litrenta says attendance is “strong” and exceeding last year’s level. “We measure by where people are coming from, whether it’s local, nearby, in TV markets where we advertise, other places in the U.S. and internationally, and we’re up in all categories,” Litrenta says.

SeaWorld has also upgraded the park experience with its Journey to Atlantis ride, which opened in 2004. “It’s a combination water and roller coaster ride,” he says. “It has very broad appeal. It doesn’t turn you upside down, but it’s still thrilling for kids.”

Locals can get repeat visits by using SeaWorld “passports,” which include reduced prices for members’ out-of-town friends and relatives. Litrenta says SeaWorld hasn’t seen an attendance dip due to gas prices, but it’s on his radar. “The price of gas is obviously on everyone’s minds, but so far we haven’t seen that to be a problem,” he says. “L.A. is our second- biggest market, and the cost of travel is reasonable for a day or weekend trip.”

As general manager of the Manchester Grand Hyatt, Ted Kanatas has a rarefied view of the tourism scene, hosting some 20,000 unique visitors for an average of three nights a month each—around 60,000 room nights.

“Our hotel primarily serves convention groups,” he says, “but because of our destination, a lot of convention visitors elect to stay another day or so.” Attractions give visitors another reason to extend, and Kanatas says his concierge stays busy booking zoo or SeaWorld trips from the hotel.

Golf has always been a draw for business and leisure travelers alike, but Reinders says the local tourism industry needs to pay closer attention to active sports of all sorts. “You have the X-Games generation and the whole adventure-travel experience,” he says. “There’s [the rise of ] snowboarding and water sports, mountain hiking and biking. People today want active leisure.”

San Diego has more than enough natural resources to satisfy adventure travelers. How to cater to some tourists, who get more than enough exercise chasing after the kids at SeaWorld, and others, who would rather swim with whales in the ocean, will be a challenge for local attractions in the years ahead.

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