Heritage Valley Tourism Bureau will open its new office on July 31st.

The Heritage Valley Tourism Bureau (HVTB) lost a significant portion of its budget, but plans to proceed with marketing as usual by making cuts in staffing and rent. Its mission is to promote tourism in the Heritage Valley, which includes Santa Paula, Fillmore, Piru, and Rancho Camulos. In April, the Santa Paula City Council voted to sever its relationship with HVTB by withdrawing financial support. Executive Director Della Reyes said that HVTB is undergoing an identity crisis as it reacts to Santa Paula’s $25,000 cut. HVTB’s fiscal year started July 1st.

HVTB currently has a budget of approximately $42,000, according to Interim President Kathleen McCreary. She explained that Fillmore is contributing $25,000 (Fillmore and Santa Paula had been equal contributors), the Ventura County Redevelopment Agency is contributing $10,000 on behalf of Piru, and the remaining funds come from advertising partners and memberships. Businesses can pay additional fees to become advertising partners and appear in certain advertisements. Reyes pointed out that Santa Paula businesses and organizations have shown that they value HVTB by renewing their memberships. Reyes explained that in a weak economy advertising becomes more, not less, important. The organization has increased its general memberships by at least 10% from last year. HVTB has reduced staff hours and will be moving to a new location.

Reyes’s hours have been cut from 30 hours per week to 18 hours per week. The HVTB office is currently open Tuesday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Reyes is optimistic about the change, but said that finishing all her work in just 18 hours per week is a challenge.

Interim President Kathleen McCreary said that HVTB’s accomplishments included increasing marketing efforts, and thereby exposure, for the entire Heritage Valley. HVTB maintains 12 brochure racks at various locations across Heritage Valley, and advertises in tourist magazines and at tourist centers.

McCreary said that they started out in just one regional tourist publication and are now advertising in at least 8 publications: some local, some regional, and some global. The California State Visitor’s Guide, which can be found in international tourist destinations, has a web site which links to the HVTB and monitors the number of visitors who click through to the HVTB web site. The California Central Coast Visitor’s Guide contains a third of a page description of Heritage Valley. The description includes directions from Ventura, Santa Paula’s historic downtown, the California Oil Museum, Santa Paula’s murals, the Little Red Schoolhouse, Fillmore shops and museums, the Giessinger Winery, the Fillmore & Western Railway, a Victorian mansion and landmark church in Piru, Piru’s Heritage Valley Inn, Lake Piru, and Rancho Camulos. The Ventura County TravelHost half-page ad about Heritage Valley includes a special events calendar. The June-August ad highlighted Fillmore’s July 4th Car Show, Festival, and the Firecracker dinner train.

HVTB had rented a display area at the Ventura Visitors Center, but has removed most of the display and will be advertising at Oxnard’s California Welcome Center instead. For less money than the Visitors Center had been charging, HVTB will be able to hang a banner in the Welcome Center, which is prominently located just off the 101, and will receive feedback from the Welcome Center regarding tourist interest in Heritage Valley. The Ventura Visitors Center has not been able to provide that kind of data. Reyes has already provided Welcome Center employees with information about Heritage Valley to share with tourists. The Ventura Visitors Center will still display Heritage Valley brochures.

HVTB spearheaded a regional tourism effort reaching from Santa Clarita to the Pacific Ocean and helped form a regional tourism alliance. The regional meetings in 2007 and 2008 included mayors from Santa Clarita, Fillmore, and Santa Paula, as well as representatives from the Oxnard Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Ventura Visitors & Convention Bureau. They heard a speaker from the California State Tourism Office and discussed marketing each other to gain exposure and marketing themselves as a region. As a result, there might be a double-page spread in the 2010 California State Visitor’s Guide, showing a map of that entire area and marketing the region as a destination.

There are still some sensitive issues to be worked out as HVTB moves forward without funding from the City of Santa Paula. McCreary stressed that Santa Paula is still part of Heritage Valley, but said HVTB’s amended bylaws will not require a member of Santa Paula City Staff to be on the Board. Most of the advertising for 2009 is already set, so decisions being made now will affect marketing efforts in 2010.

HVTB will be moving out of its large office at 448 Santa Clara St. across from City Hall by July 31st. The rent there was $950 per month. The HVTB office is already partially packed up. Temporarily, HVTB will be moving into the Fillmore & Western Railway office at 351 Santa Clara St. The Railway has offered Reyes desk space, and she mentioned that Fillmore & Western owner Dave Wilkinson has been very helpful with the move.

The City of Fillmore plans to lease to HVTB and to the Fillmore & Western Railway the building which had housed Joanna’s Ice Cream Shop on Main St. in Central Park. Transitional City Manager Larry Pennell said that he expects rent to be approximately $750 per month, and sees the proposed lease as “a win-win opportunity”. Reyes explained that cost of rent at the new location would be split between HVTB and Fillmore & Western Railway, which will use part of the space as a ticket office. Reyes hopes that sharing an office with the Railway will increase collaboration opportunities. Pennell mentioned that cooperation is important to Fillmore’s economic vitality. He expects train visitors to return after learning what else the Heritage Valley has to offer. He said that the arrangement would provide a dissemination point for information about Fillmore.

Fillmore City Council in its capacity as the Fillmore Redevelopment Agency is scheduled to approve or reject the lease at the July 28th Council Meeting. Pennell believes that if the Council approves the one-year lease on July 28th, then the building will be available within 30 days after that. The building requires modifications before the former ice cream shop would be suitable for use as a tourism and ticket office. Pennell informed the Gazette that Fillmore & Western would be paying for those changes, which include carpeting and electrical work. The final move, to the renovated building on Main St. in the park, is expected to take place in August or September.
After moving to the new location, HVTB might hire a part-time representative to assist train tourists on weekends.