Visit Stockton Mid-Year Report - July 2023

2023 Mid-Year Report | January 2023 - June 2023 A LETTER FROM THE CEO

Welcome to Summer!

As summer finally settles in, we find ourselves at the midpoint of 2023. The Visit Stockton team has been bustling with activity during the first half of the year. Before we delve into the highlights, let's take a moment to discuss the progress of the local tourism economy.

As we navigate through the uncertainties of the "new normal," consumer behavior continues to display a certain level of unpredictability. While concerns over the economy, personal finances, and the slow recovery of business travel persist, pinpointing the exact cause of the decline in summer travel remains a challenge. It's important to note that Stockton is not alone in facing these hurdles. All cities in San Joaquin County have witnessed a decline in visitor foot traffic ranging from 18% to 24% over the past six months, with Stockton faring relatively better. Although hotel demand has experienced a slight downturn of 10% year to date, rates remain resilient at nearrecord levels, with an average of around $116 in May. Rest assured, our commitment to navigating these challenges remains steadfast.

As mentioned earlier, the Visit Stockton team had a remarkably busy first two quarters. This report highlights the exceptional activity during that period, but I want to take a moment to express my immense pride in our team's achievements in the month of May.

On May 5, despite the drizzly weather, our team successfully organized yet another triumphant Feast at the Fox. This annual fundraiser for the Delta College Culinary Program proved to be a resounding success, raising valuable funds despite the damp weather.

From May 12 to 14, Visit Stockton partnered with the University of the Pacific to host the NCAA Women's Water Polo National Championship. Together, we orchestrated an outstanding event, showcasing our strong collaboration with the university.

I can't express how delighted I am with our team's dedication and accomplishments. We have truly made our mark, and I am confident that we will continue to thrive in our future endeavors.

The very next day, we embarked on the setup for the highly acclaimed 2nd Annual Stockton Flavor Fest (May 19– 21). This three-day festival, held in Downtown Stockton, proved to be a resounding success, attracting nearly 15,000 visitors who came to experience the vibrant flavors our city has to offer.

Lastly, we are thrilled to extend a warm welcome to the newest member of the Visit Stockton family, the Hampton Inn on Arch Road. This beautiful property, boasting 98 rooms, marks a significant milestone as the first addition to our local hotel inventory in over 15 years.

Please take a moment to review this report, reflecting on the accomplishments we've witnessed so far this year and the exciting plans ahead. If you have any questions or suggestions, we encourage you to share them with me or any member of the Visit Stockton team. We value your input and look forward to working together towards continued success.

Chief Executive Officer

Stockton Flavor Fest

Hampton Inn

Feast at the Fox

NCAA Water Polo at UOP

DIRECT TRAVEL IMPACT 2022

Direct Travel Impact Data, compiled by Dean Runyan Associates, describes the economic impact of travel to and through our community, including detailed estimates of travel spending, the employment and earnings generated by this spending, and travel-generated tax receipts. This information is important because it allows us to assess how the business of travel impacts our tax base, and what sort of burden they would face if we didn’t support the industry.

$355.9 MIL

Direct Travel Spending

30.7% YOY

2,700 Jobs Supported by Direct Travel Spending

17.5% YOY

SUMMARY OF EFFORTS

Stocked Full of Dining

$25.9 MIL

Tax Generated by Direct Travel Spending

21.2% YOY

For the past decade, Visit Stockton has hosted a traditional Restaurant Week, where restaurants opted-in to a 10-day dining promotion. Historically, we say around 30 restaurants participated in the promotion, and they created a special menu that Visit Stockon promoted through digital and traditional marketing. Over the years, we saw a decline in the number of restaurants that wanted to participate, and after 2020, we found that the program wasn’t seeing the same success it did in years past (labor costs, food costs, etc. were all factors in that decline). We decided to shift from the norm and take our own approach.

To better represent and promote all dining options in Stockton, we opted to take a digital-only approach that did not require any additional labor or efforts from our local restaurants. We also took our 10-day promotion and expanded it through the entire month of January. We promoted three dining blogs and two dining videos a week on social media, ran diningspecific commercials on digital television, did a website takeover highlighting dining options across the city, and encouraged social sharing with weekly giveaways. We felt that this program shift better represented our mission, reaching greater audiences and expanding the local businesses we served.

Our new “Restaurant Month” promotion saw great success in its first year, and using our research platform Placer.ai, we discovered a 21% increase in local restaurant visitation in 2023 compared to 2022. We plan to expand on this new program and continue to perfect it in 2024.

San Joaquin County Tourism Recovery Grant

Visit Stockton was enthusiastic about our re-application for the San Joaquin County Tourism Recovery Grant which focused on attracting a higher-spend audience to Stockton. According to our research, Stockton is the highest-visited city within the county, as well as having the longest dwell time, and visitors often visit other communities while on their trip to Stockton. We used that data as validation to request a $100,000 grant, which we were awarded in March 2023.

$100,000 grant awarded

We have specified certain recreational and content pillars that drive visitation to our area (dining, sports, family recreation, etc.) and created a 6-month video promotion program to distribute through EffecTV to our regional drive audience. The promotion lasts through September, and we will provide a full report at its conclusion.

Tourism Breakfast

Our Annual Tourism Breakfast is an opportunity for our organization to share our successes from the year prior and share plans and goals for the upcoming year with our partners and stakeholders. This year, we had the honor of having representatives from Visit California in the audience, as well as a presentation by the VP of Marketing, Lynn Carpenter, which shared the VC program plans, explained how our partners can become more involved, and was a great way for us to highlight the Stockton

Source: Dean Runyan Associates

SUMMARY OF EFFORTS (Continued)

story with our state partners. We started the event with a performance by our friends at Stockton Soul, a Black Soul Orchestra sharing their love of music and education with the community, and ended the event with the launch of our Fantastic 4 Stockton campaign. The event was a great success, and we always appreciate an opportunity to share our passion with others who will enthusiastically spread our mission.

Fantastic 4 Stockton Campaign

Stockton can always use some positive media coverage, and that is exactly why we launched the Fantastic 4 Stockton campaign. We launched a petition to get Marvel to feature Stockton, the Stan Lee-appointed home of the Fantastic Four, in the upcoming blockbuster film. With the help of the Mayor, Al Greco, Joe Field, and the comic-nerd Visit Stockton team, we launched our petition, accompanied by an awesome video, to excite the community and build comradery around the city’s shared passion for the Fantastic Four story and love of Stockton. Below is a sample of the media coverage we received around the campaign, as well as some of the comments we saw on our petition page.

This is Stockton Podcast

The This is Stockton podcast series highlights the people, places, and happenings of our community, and we are quickly approaching our first birthday! Below are updated stats regarding the reach and influence of the series, and if you ever have ideas for guests for the podcast, please reach out to us!

22 EPISODES

4,360 LISTENS

Source: Audioboom

Feast at the Fox

160 SUBSCRIBERS

Fest at the Fox, our signature farm-to-fork dinner under the marquee of the Bob Hope Theatre, is an annual fundraiser for the Delta College Culinary Arts Program. We are still finalizing the amount of funding raised for Delta, but we welcomed 176 guests, including four major program sponsors and 10 table sponsors. 7 Delta College professors were the featured chefs of the event, and 36 student chefs assisted with preparation and execution. The event was a great success, even with a slight drizzle, and we can’t wait to continue reimagining the event for years to come!

Announcement: We moved offices!

We are so excited to announce our office move to the historic Sperry Building at 146 W. Weber Ave. on the Downtown Stockton Waterfront. We were bursting at the seams in our last building, and we are thrilled to better serve our visitors at our new street-level location (with tons of parking!). Come visit us anytime Monday – Friday, 8 AM – 4 PM to pick up some Stockton merch, visitor information, and check out our new digs.

SUMMARY OF EFFORTS (Continued)

ESTIMATED ECONOMIC IMPACT

$1,207,709 Total Business Sales

$14,832 Total Local Tax Collections

Source: Destinations International Economic Impact Calculator

Stockton Flavor Fest was hosted May 19–21, 2023, at the Weber Point Events Center in Downtown Stockton. The three-day festival was a celebration of the food, music, and cultures that make up the diverse communities in Stockton, California, which has been called one of the most diverse cities in America (US News, 2020). In partnership with the City of Stockton and with the help of local nonprofits, organizations, artists, and creatives, Stockton Flavor Fest created a sense of pride and excitement for our community.

ATTENDANCE VOLUNTEER PROGRAM

Friday 3,400

20% GROWTH from 2022's attendance

5,700 Saturday 5,400

14,500 Total Attendees

675 Volunteers

2,700+ Volunteer Hours

$29,179.89 Funds Raised for Non-Profits

Source: Placer.ai

We put much effort into creating the best second year we could, and that meant spending a lot of effort evaluating year one and making result-driven changes. One big change was the addition of a third day, Friday, to the festival. This meant more opportunity for our community to experience the festival, create more openness for groups and families, and more exposure for our vendors, artists, and community partners. We also added new programs, like the $2 Taste the Flavor samples, added new sponsors, including San Joaquin RTD, Tia Linda’s Margarita, and the Stockton Kings, and welcomed more vendors and artists than ever before.

We want to thank all the people who made this festival a reality, especially our 675 volunteers. This event is truly a labor of love, and we could not do it without all the communities' support!

VISITORS BY CITY

SPORTS & DEVELOPMENT

2023 National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship at University of Pacific Visit Stockton and the University of the Pacific served as hosts for the 2023 National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship May 12-14, welcoming 7 of the best Division I programs — Stanford, USC, California, UCLA, UC Irvine, Princeton, and Fresno State — while also hosting a first-round play-in game between Long Island University and Biola University on May 10. Hosted in conjunction with the championship matches was a student-athlete banquet, which we held at Stockton Golf and Country Club.

DEVELOPMENT EVENTS ATTENDED

Connect Sports Marketplace Las Vegas

April 2023

Stockton Chamber of Commerce Tradeshow

June 2023

9 COLLEGE TEAMS

2,550 ATTENDEES

$38,858

TOTAL LOCAL TAX COLLECTIONS

$589,838

TOTAL BUSINESS SALES

Sources: NCAA & DI Economic Impact Calculator

2023 OTB Disc Golf Open at Swenson Park

The OTB Disc Golf Open (May 12-14) was just one-of-two Pro Tour stops hosted on the West Coast. Visit Stockton served as a sponsor for the 160-player event that returned to Swenson Park Golf Course for a third-consecutive year.

160 PLAYERS

2000+ VISITORS

60+ ROOM NIGHTS

UPCOMING TRADESHOWS AND CONFERENCES

Destination International Annual Convention

July 2023

NCAA Championship Hosting Symposium

August 2023

Educational Seminar for Tourism Offices

August 2023

Cal Travel Summit

August 2023

Hampton Inn Stockton Opening

The Hampton Inn Stockton, located just off of the Arch Road exit on Highway 99 opened its doors in May and recently celebrated its Grand Opening. The newest Stockton hotel property features 98 rooms, over 1,200 square feet of meeting space and an activated outdoor space that includes an outdoor pool and firepits.

IN THE COMMUNITY

School Job Presentation and Job Fair

Stockton Arts Commission Meeting & Presentation

California Arts Commission Meeting

San Joaquin County Asparagus Festival

Leadership Stockton Class of 2023

MARKETING & PUBLIC RELATIONS

Website Metrics

Starting in 2023, Visit Stockton has been reporting all website statistics through the new Google Analytics G4 update, which will be the industry standard come July 1, 2023. We are still deepening our understanding of the new reporting metrics, and some of these numbers may change as the industry learns more about the platform.

GOOGLE WEB STORIES

3,180

TOP WEBSITE GA4 EVENTS

473,150

6.23% Story CTR

SOCIAL PROFILE PERFORMANCE

Source: Localhood 128.1k

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

51% Open Rate

7.3% Click Rate

0.07% Google CTR Source:

MARKETING & PUBLIC RELATIONS (Continued)

Stocked Full of Flavor Video Series

As a result of receiving the San Joaquin County Tourism Grant, we are producing videos of Stockton with different content themes spanning 6 months.

Notable News Coverage

▪ Marvel fever hits Stockton as hundreds sign petition to bring 'Fantastic Four' to town – ABC10 (March)

▪ Petition for Stockton to be featured in MCU's "Fantastic Four" film – CBS News (March)

▪ Stockton's history and its future in the Marvel Universe – Stockton Record (March)

▪ Could Stockton be featured in the next Fantastic Four movie? Its mayor hopes so. – capradio (March)

▪ Campaign launched to bring production of Marvel film to Stockton – Fox 40 (March)

▪ How one Northern California city convinced Stan Lee to move the home of the Fantastic Four –KTLA (March)

▪ What is the Fantastic Four's connection to a Northern California city? – KRON4 (March)

▪ Petition gains traction for Stockton to be featured in MCU's "Fantastic Four" film – CBS News (March)

▪ Stockton Flavor Fest Preview & Studio Interview – FOX40 (May)

▪ Stockton Flavor Fest happening this weekend – CBS News Sacramento (May)

▪ Three-Day 'Flavor Fest' returns to Stockton for 2nd year in 2023 – ABC10 (May)

▪ Stockton Flavor Fest Cody's Caravan Day-Of interview – Good Day Sacramento (May)

▪ Stockton Flavor Fest returns on Friday through Sunday. Here's what to know – KCRA3 (May)

▪ Stockton Flavor Fest serves generous helping of region’s cuisine and family entertainment – Local News Matters Bay Area (May)

Sport City Golf Tourney

Returning for its second year, the Sports City Golf Tourney will be hosted on Monday, October 23rd, at Brookside County Club. The team is hard at work making the second-year event even more fun than the first. Expect a day of fun, excitement, and good sportsmanship! If you are interested in sponsoring the event, please contact Rebecca at rebecca@visitstockton.org.

Marketing Photo Library Shoot

Visit Stockton is working to build up our owned photo library database with the help of a destination lifestyle photographer. We are devising a three-day itinerary, thanks to the help of our amazing attractions and business partners (and models), that fills in the current content gaps in our collection: shopping, water activities, outdoor lifestyle, and dining. We are thrilled to add these images to our collection for our marketing efforts, for our partners’ use, and for media inquiries.

Epsilon Campaign

Beginning in mid-July, we will launch a data-based digital marketing campaign that will help us gain further knowledge of who our visitors are, their behaviors, and their decision-making processes. This data allows us to make smart marketing decisions by eliminating a “one-size-fits-all" message to our unique visitor market. This campaign will focus on our family-friendly attractions, as well as Stockton’s arts and entertainment offerings.

Resident Sentiment Survey

We have yet again partnered with the University of the Pacific (UoP) to conduct a Resident Sentiment survey. Although we are the visitor bureau, everything we do as an organization is for the benefit of our community, and a Resident Sentiment survey is a great opportunity to make sure we are fulfilling that promise to our stakeholders. We conducted a similar survey in 2021, and that will serve as a baseline for our 2023 findings. The survey is currently live, and we will finish gathering results later this summer, at which time UoP will analyze, compare, and report back their findings.

CALL TO ACTIONS