Santa Maria Valley Chamber unveils plans to increase tourism to the region

SANTA MARIA, Cailf. (KEYT) - The Santa Maria Valley Chamber will unveiled plans Thursday afternoon that are currently being developed to help in boost tourism in the region in the coming years.

The plans were announced during a two-hour Chamber event that was held at the recently renovated Homewood Suites by Hilton Santa Maria.

"This is our Santa Maria Valley Tourism Celebration," said Jennifer Harrison, Santa Maria Valley Chamber Vice President of Marketing and Communications. "It was at the request of our Tourism Marketing District Advisory Committee. We are about ten years into the formation of our district and thought it'd be a great time to reflect on our big wins, as well as any accomplishments we have in a look ahead."

During her presentation, Harrison spoke about current state of tourism in the valley, revealed key market insights and performance data, as well as showcase future plans and strategic initiatives that are currently being designed and implemented.

"We're excited about what there is ahead," said Harrison. "We have launched new campaigns that we think are very family centric, which I think speaks to the community as a whole. We're excited to see where it's going. We have seen the impacts of the work that we're doing.  I think what makes us really special and unique is that we've always been affordable, which is intriguing to families. They can visit destinations outside of the valley, and really have fun in a regional sense, but stay here at our affordable hotels and lodging, so we're able to offer that."

A key element of the presentation was to share the amount of Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT), also known as "bed tax" that was generated in 2025 through overnight stays.

"TOT revenue is coming in at about $3.5 million," said Harrison. "Our highest year ever recorded was about $4 million, and so we're seeing a little bit of a leveling out, but we're certainly 30% up since the formation of the district. What we have seen across an industry is a little bit of a leveling out. We fared fairly well during Covid, and then we had a couple of really high years in terms of revenue and receipts, and then it's has started to level out a little, which is what we're seeing industrywide, but we're still seeing unprecedented numbers in terms of life span of program."

There's optimism numbers will increase in the years to come, especially since the city has a number of new attractions, businesses, events and other changes on the way.

"A lot of great things are happening in this community," said Harrison. "We're currently at the Homewood Suites now, which is recently renovated and rebranded. We have another hotel just across the street that's going to be breaking ground soon. We have the Radisson that is currently in the works of renovations and getting their property rebranded. We have the Planes of Fame (museum) that's coming and who we've been working with. We we're going to have somebody here from the (Santa Maria) Fairpark, discussing some of the things they have coming up, as well as the (Santa Maria) airport, talking about their new flights and possibility of expansion there and how well that service has been doing. In addition to that, we are going to announce some added value to the Santa Maria BBQ Festival this year. We have been working with the event promoter there to expand it to a three-day event with multiple facets in there."