Visit Santa Barbara tells city council that Santa Barbara is doing better than other entities
Mayor Randy Rowse watches Visit Santa Barbara’s video promoting the area for tourism during the Santa Barbara City Council meeting.
Santa Barbara outperformed the county, state and even the nation in terms of growth in revenue per available hotel/motel room, the head of Visit Santa Barbara told the city council on Tuesday in the group’s annual presentation.
The numbers show the city has more than rebounded since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down many businesses and damaged the local economy, said Kathy Janega-Dykes, president and CEO of Visit Santa Barbara.
“Our crowning success is that in many ways this outpaces that of our competitors,” she told the Santa Barbara City Council during its meeting. “Growth in revenue per available was an astonishing 44%” — more than the average for Santa Barbara County, California and the country as a whole — “while the state is working to get back even.”
During her presentation, Ms. Janega-Dykes provided a look back on the Fiscal Year 2022 tourist industry performance, and a look ahead to Visit Santa Barbara’s sales and marketing plans to attract visitors to Santa Barbara, known as “the American Riviera.”
Kathy Janega-Dykes, president and CEO of Visit Santa Barbara, told the Santa Barbara City Council that Santa Barbara is outperforming Santa Barbara County, California and the U.S. in growth in revenue per available hotel/motel room.
“Santa Barbara has the upper hand in terms of brand,” she said. “It checks all the boxes for our visitors.”
At the same time, she said her group’s efforts are not just on behalf of tourists but “for the community here, our residents, your constituents.”
“The challenge remains the same pre- and post-COVID,” she said. “The city and Visit Santa Barbara do our best work together to protect our reputation as a beautiful destination.”
Whether it’s COVID or another obstacle, “our community has a way of coming out on top.”
She said that even during the pandemic, Visit Santa Barbra stayed on top of the tourist market aggressively so that when restrictions were lifted, “from day one, our hotel occupancy rebounded,” increasing the city’s transient occupancy taxes dramatically.
Despite the group’s success in promoting Santa Barbara and attracting visitors, Visit Santa Barbara’s mission remains the same: to put Santa Barbara on the map.
“Certainly the pandemic has taught us lessons that last a lifetime, to maximize the moment at hand” while acknowledging that change is inevitable, she said.
The Santa Barbara City Council on Tuesday appointed Sarah Knecht as the city attorney.
“The bottom line is that we have to continue to market aggressively. We’ve had to since day one and we have to continue for the days to come.”
Councilmember Kristen Sneddon asked why Santa Barbara continues to do so much better than its competitors.
“We were in the market immediately,” launching an advertising campaign to put the city on people’s radar “and keeping our fingers crossed,” Ms. Janega-Dykes said. “We were very hyper-focused and used cell phone data to identify prospective customers,” updating the group’s website continuously “to make sure it stays fresh and contains all the information visitors are looking for. And it worked.”
Councilmember Mike Jordan agreed the group and city need to continue their marketing efforts to pitch Santa Barbara as the choice place to visit.
“If we sit on our hands and don’t continue to market, react and work on impacts, we go backwards and lose all our benefits we receive due to tourism,” he said.
Councilmember Eric Friedman said the city’s success in drawing tourists didn’t just happen by accident.
Council members Alejandra Gutierrez and Eric Friedman listen to the presentation by Kathy Janega-Dykes, president and CEO of Visit Santa Barbara. Mr. Friedman later noted that the city’s success in drawing tourists didn’t just happen by accident.
“We got 44% while California has negative 2%,” he said. “That comes from great planning ahead. It helps us tell our story as the biggest small town you can ever live in.”
In other business, the council appointed Sarah Knecht as Santa Barbara’s new city attorney. She has been the acting city attorney since August.
Ms. Knecht said she is thrilled to have this opportunity to serve the City Council and community in her new position.
“I’m looking forward to continuing to work with the talented team in the City Attorney’s Office as well as the dedicated city staff to ensure that we continue to deliver superior public service,” she said.
Her new position is effective as of Saturday. Her starting salary is $281,736 per year plus benefits.
Ms. Knecht will take over the job from former City Attorney Ariel Calonne, who was placed on paid leave and then fired after a heated argument he had with someone in his office was overheard by others and reported to Human Resources.
In other business, the council named Linda Esparza Dozer, Daniel Robert Herlinger, Gary Jon Hill, Lizzie Rodriguez and Ana Alicia Zepeda to five seats on the newly reconstituted Fire and Police Commission.
Ms. Dozer. Ms. Rodriguez and Ms. Zepead were appointed to four-year terms ending Dec. 31, 2026. Mr. Herlinger and Mr. Hill were appointed to two-year terms ending Dec. 31, 2024.
The council passed an ordinance on Oct. 18 that assigned additional civilian oversight duties to the commission to oversee the police and monitor citizen complaints in an effort to increase transparency and public trust.
email: nhartsteinnewspress@gmail.com
