DMOs Join Visit California Staff to Inform and Inspire Central Coast Region Travel

Last week, Visit California hosted the five central coast region destinations for a destination mixer event. Held at Visit California headquarters in Sacramento, the event educated the team on the unique experiences travelers can find in California’s iconic central coast and offered a bounty of networking opportunities and market strategy coordination.

Visit Santa Barbara offered a unique activity in which attendees participated in a Painting with Wine seminar led by Danielle Renee Art, a local up and coming artist. Participants received a taste of local Rose wine as they painted their way through Santa Barbara.

The Visit Santa Cruz team explained the four pillars of Santa Cruz through a custom cocktail called the Santa Cruz 831, presented by Independent Spirits Consultant, Educator and Brand Ambassador Lindsay Eshleman from Venus Spirits. Everyone went home with a box of local chocolates, and five lucky attendees went home with a Santa Cruz beach towel blanket from their end-of-presentation giveaway.

See Monterey presented a special VR golfing experience to celebrate the U.S. Women’s Open and Monterey Pro v. Pro. Monterey brought the iconic green of the Pebble Beach Golf Links to the office as attendees competed against each other in a virtual golfing tournament. After passing around samples of artichoke dip made from their world-famous artichokes as a way to celebrate their new agriculture Artichoke Trail, they sent everyone home with a special salt seasoning blend.

To highlight their destination’s sustainability efforts, Visit SLO CAL displayed maps of a San Luis Obispo County sustainable wine trail and brewery trail. Showcasing their destination through the senses, SLO CAL started their presentation with a sampling of local sustainably sourced wines, and then moved on to their signature cocktail made from sustainable spirits and local produce, and finished it off with fresh strawberries and locally baked bread with freshly milled olive oil and seasonings. They gave everyone a custom SLO CAL Crafted tote bag that they could fill with take-home goodies including spirits and mixers to recreate their cocktail, Pasolivo olive oil and seasonings, and a candle and bath bomb.

Entertainment and edge were the stars of the show at Visit Oxnard. Mixologist and influencer bartender Bad Birdy joined Visit Oxnard to create their custom “Oxnard Fresa Fizz” cocktail – spotlighting Oxnard as the strawberry capital of the world. They presented their award-winning short film, “A Taco Story”, featuring Wade Holland and Miss California USA 2015 Natasha Martinez, that took attendees on an thrilling tour of Oxnard’s best taco joints. After sampling the beloved Oxnard strawberries, attendees all went home with a strawberry candle.

Visit California looks forward to meeting with more California regions in the months ahead.