about travel santa ana
Travel Santa Ana is the official Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) for Santa Ana.
Travel Santa Ana is dedicated to promoting the city as a desirable Orange County destination for business, leisure, meetings, sports, and group travel.
Travel Santa Ana is a non-for-profit, 501 C (6), funded by a 2% assessment implemented by the Santa Ana Tourism Marketing District (SATMD). The SATMD is comprised of 17 hotels and motels with (70) rooms or more within the boundaries of the City of Santa Ana. The assessment is paid for by visitors who stay at those hotels and motels.
2024-2026 Travel Santa Ana Board of Directors
Chair: Aaron Saliba, General Manager, Hotel Zessa a DoubleTree by Hilton
Vice Chair: Alissa Salma, General Manager, Courtyard Santa Ana/Orange County
Past Chair: Julie Buettner, General Manager, Courtyard Costa Mesa South Coast Metro
Treasurer: Ryan Chase, Owner, 4th Street Market
Secretary: Erin Warady, Marketing Chair/CMO, Cannabis Chamber of Commerce
At-Large:
Frank Atayde, General Manager, Holiday Inn Orange County Airport
Marc Morley, Economic Development Manager, City of Santa Ana
Cory Sams, General Manager, MainPlace Mall
Quinn Su, General Manager, Doubletree by Hilton Orange County Airport
Marketing Advisory Group
Amanda Blazey, Director of Marketing, Orange County School of the Arts
Logan Crow, Executive Director & Founder, Frida Cinema/DTSA Artwalk
Paul Eakins, Public Affairs Information Officer, City of Santa Ana
Cori Lantz, Recreation & Community Services Supervisor, City of Santa Ana Parks & Recreation
Scott Melvin, Vice President of School Relations, Mater Dei High School
Kelly Radomske, Vice President of External Affairs, Bowers Museum
Maribel Silva, Operations Coordinator, Santa Ana Zoo
Daniela Valencia, Marketing Director, MainPlace Mall
Jason (J-Bird) Venable, Co-Founder, Suavecito
Erin Warady, Marketing Chair/CMO, Cannabis Chamber of Commerce
Cherie Whyte, Vice President, Marketing, Discovery Cube
WENDY HAASE-ROBERTS, CDME
President & CEO
ANALAURA BECERRA, CDME, CMP, CTA Director of Sales
MARIA GONZALEZ, PDM, CTA
Content & Community Engagement Manager
Passion
about travel santa ana
mission
To share Santa Ana with the world.
vision
Santa Ana is the authentic & welcoming Orange County experience.
We are passionate in our efforts to strengthen our community’s economic vitality.
inclusiveness
We are diverse and inclusive. All are welcome.
values
collaboration
We value and respect each other, and recognize we are stronger when we work together.
relevance
We are valued in our community for our leadership, expertise, and integrity.
awareness
We are aware of our community’s cultural heritage and history and continue to ask questions and learn.
boundaries
The Santa Ana Tourism Marketing District (TMD) includes lodging businesses, existing and in the future, available for public occupancy within the boundaries of the City of Santa Ana. The boundary, as shown in the map below, currently includes seventeen (17) lodging businesses that have seventy (70) rooms or more.
santa ana hotel inventory
hotel overview
Santa Ana Hotel Inventory: 2,770 rooms at 17 Hotels
*DoubleTree rebranded to Hotel Zessa a DoubleTree by Hilton
Hotel Annual Revenue: Over $76 Million*
Hotel Visitor Tax: $9.4 Million
Tourism Marketing District Collections: $1.5 Million
Hotel Average Daily Rate: $122.49 *
Hotel Occupancy: 69% *
*Includes 15 of the 17 TMD hotels. Santa Ana CA Lodge and Red Roof Inn do not report to STR, the global leader in hospitality data benchmarking, analytics, and marketplace insights.
tourism matters
2023 direct travel impacts to santa ana
$414.7 million direct travel spending YOY 9.2%
$27.1 million IN TAXES BY DIRECT TRAVEL SPENDING
940,341 visitors YOY 5%
2,980 SANTA ANA JOBS ARE SUPPORTED BY VISITORS EQUALING $135.6 MILLION IN WAGES TO SANTA ANA’S ECONOMY!
$16.7
$36.8 million Retail sales
$63 million Local transportation & gas
$81.5 million Arts, entertainment, & recreation
matters
$109 million Dining
SANTA ANA’S MAJOR VISITOR SPENDING CATEGORIES
$107 million Accommodations
Santa Ana households would pay $195 more a year in local taxes without visitor-generated taxes received by local government.
visitor profile
the wor K of a destination organi Z ation
1.VISIT
If
2. live
And if you built a place where people want to live, then you have built a place where people want to work.
4.invest
And
3.
work
And if you built a place where people want to work, then you have built a place where business and residents will invest.
Travel Santa Ana
goals
• Build awareness of Santa Ana’s assets and destination by storytelling through video, imagery, and content.
• Position Santa Ana as a desirable Southern California meeting location for appropriate groups both domestic and international.
• Drive measurable web traffic through a mix of earned, paid, and owned media.
• Support hotels’ efforts to increase bookings by prospecting select drive centric geographic markets, high inbound air flight traffic locations and small market states.
strategies
• Amplify audience exposure to the brand across all touchpoints of the travel planning journey.
• Cultivate third-party meeting planner relationships that amplify and magnify the city’s sales impact in the marketplace, including attending sales missions and tradeshows.
• Develop creative marketing campaigns that drive awareness and bookings.
• Implement a strategic marketing mix that drives conversions from target demographics.
• Test and track each marketing initiative to optimize performance.
• Adjust campaigns on an ongoing basis to reach key performance metrics for the highest ROI.
24 tradeshows
1,179 appointments
17 site inspections
101 qualified leads
$9.3 million in potential hotel revenue
client events & FAm tours:
Hosted client events in Chicago, Greenville, Las Vegas, Mexico City, Miami, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Vancouver.
Hosted 2 Familiarization (FAM) Tours for qualified meeting planners.
r oad & t rade s how h ighlights
Visit CA Canada Mission
January
Calgary • Edmonton • Vancouver
Travel Agent Appointments:
60+ (Edmonton)
80+ (Calgary)
100+ (Vancouver)
Brand USA Mexico Mission
February
Guadalajara • Mexico City Appointments:
53 travel agents representing 41 organizations
Plus, presentation to 150 travel agents in Guadalajara & 185 travel agents in Mexico City
U.S. Travel Association’s IPW
May
Los Angeles
Appointments:
40 international buyers
39 international media
Plus, co-hosted reception with Visit Buena Park for Mexican media with over 100+ attending.
Visit California Roadshow East
June
Chicago • Washington D.C.
Meeting Planner Appointments:
33 Chicago + networking
42 D.C.
• CA DMO Alliance
• CalSAE Elevate
• Connect Spring & West
• HPN Global & Partner Conference
Connect Marketplace
August
Milwaukee
Meeting Planner Appointments: 47
Plus, presentation to 125 meeting planners
Visit Anaheim Canada Roadshow
November
Calgary • Edmonton • Vancouver
Meeting Planner Presentations:
88 Calgary
136 Edmonton
150 Vancouver
CalSAE’s Seasonal Spectacular
December
Sacramento
9 appointments
Plus, breakfast sponsorship for 250 qualified association buyers & played Loteria with 118 attendees.
• Small Market Meetings
• Smart Meetings National
• Student Youth Travel Association
• TEAMS AdditionAl roAd & trAde shoWs Attended
• Southern California Chapter of MPI
• HelmsBriscoe ABC
• Meetings Today Live
• Northstar’s Independent Planners, Destination West & Destination California
mar K eting & pr highlights
547.47% increase monthly neWsletter 1,022 New Subscribers AN INCREASE OF 130.7%
eArned mediA
• Food Fun & Faraway Places: 91.2K IG Followers
• TheTravelMom: 74.9K IG Followers
• JustinPlusLauren: 64.1K IG Followers
• Peter Greenberg: 51K IG Followers
• ConnieGoogleQueen: 22K TikTok Followers
• Exploreytion: 14.7K IG Followers
visitors guide
• Travel Times • U.S. Travel News inFluencers & mediA hosted trAckAble qr codes
Mailed: 170
Downloaded: 464
(427 English, 37 Spanish)
Impressions: 28,393
(10,232 English, 18,161 Spanish)
Printed guide is distributed at California Welcome Centers, Santa Ana hotels, John Wayne Airport, and other locations. The digital version is available in English and Spanish.
Travel Santa Ana’s public relations efforts earned media coverage in the following:
• Avin Medios • Impact OC • Pasillo Turistico
• Periodismo y Ambiente Descubre
• Radio Formula • Smart Meetings • Teleformula
• The Packed Bag • The Passenger
1,017 scans
Top scanned campaigns:
• Website Promotional Table Tents
• Michelada Guide
• Spanish Visitor Guide
Rack Cards
• San Diego Cannabis Postcards
social media highlights @
travelsantaana
Impressions: 4.09M
(an increase of 43%)
Engagements: 136.7K
(an increase of 5.7%)
Post Link Clicks: 79.7K
(an increase of 2.3%)
Engagement Rate: 3.3%
overvieW
Posts = 346
Overall Spend = $16.3K
Impressions = 4.06M
Link Clicks = 123K
Cost-Per-Click = $0.21
Click-Thru Rate (CTR) = 2.59% ThruPlays = 1.7K
Cost Per ThruPlay = $9.65
Top Producing Ads or Boosts
Blading Cup 2024 = 59K Clicks
Santa Ana Michelada Guide = 52K Clicks
Dia De los Muertos Celebrations = 28K Clicks
San Diego Market Campaign = 27K Clicks
video stAts
Impressions = 46,203
Views = 28.8K
Hours Watched = 479.3
Impressions CTR = 2.9%
Top Performing Videos
Always Bet on Us - Proud Santaneros Series 1
Discover Santa Ana - Destination Video
Santa Ana Is United by
advertising highlights
Orange 142* Mexico Campaign
• 3,515,118 total impressions served to users in Mexico
• 68,818 total clicks back to the website for an overall CTR of 1.96%
• Video instream completed view rate 88.5%
• 286,912 completed views, for a :30 video that equated to 143,456 minutes or 2,391 hours
*Three-month campaign
TACTIC
Mexico Campaign
• 4,443,153 Total Impressions
• 6,384 Total Clicks
• $37,871 Total Bookings
• 264 Room Nights
• CTR = 0.14%
• Page Views = 40,618
• Number of Flight Bookings = 6
“Always-On” Campaign
• 7,835 Room Nights | $1,075,112 in Hotel Revenue OC Campaigns
• 47,318 Room Nights | $6,470,882 in Hotel Revenue
-Delilah Snell, owner Alta Baja Market
special projects
Created the Culinary Passport to highlight the diversity of Santa Ana’s dining. The Passport features nearly 40 restaurants and provides information on what makes them special along with a must-try menu item. Visitors are encouraged to share their experience on social with the hashtag #CulinaryPassportSA
Created the Michelada Guide to highlight the iconic Mexican cocktail and showcase two dozen Santa Ana restaurants and bars that offer their own unique versions. Visitors are encouraged to share their experience on social with the hashtag #MicheladaManiaSA
Launched a complimentary training program for everyone, from frontline hospitality employees and tourism partners to city officials and residents passionate about Santa Ana. The program provides an overview of the tourism industry’s importance to the community and what makes Santa Ana unique to help better promote the destination to visitors. Those who complete the program receive an official enamel pin.
Worked with Peter Greenberg Worldwide Productions to film a segment of “Hidden Gems” featuring Alta Baja Market, the Blue Lot, Cerveza Cito, Lyon Air Museum, the Santa Ana Zoo, and THEM Skates. The segments are expected to air on PBS and AppleTV+ this year.
EYE ON TRAVEL
Recorded an “Eye on Travel” radio program with Peter Greenberg featuring Logan Crow of the Frida Cinema, Cat Decker with Friends of the Santa Ana Zoo, Tim Rush, a historian with Preserve Orange County, Hawk Scott with the City of Santa Ana Parks and Recreation, and Dr. Tianlong Jiao, the curator for the Bowers Museum.
special projects
Partnered with local artist, Ali Coyle, to create the fifth signature within the series. The unique signatures replace a traditional destination logo and are interchangeable throughout marketing materials.
Created a custom Santa Ana Lotería set featuring iconic buildings, attractions, events, and more. The game
The third series of “Proud Santanero” features two locals answering the question “what makes them a Proud Santanero.” The locals include:
• Jon Julio, Owner, THEM SKATES & Blading Cup
• Tim Rush, Historian, Preserve Orange County
The video series is promoted on YouTube and a designated website landing page.
Created custom Santa Ana stickers and pins featuring iconic buildings, attractions, events, and more.
GOLD:
Official Santa Ana Visitors Guide (Print)
Santa Ana Public Art Guide (Landing Page)
HONORABLE MENTION:
Travel Santa Ana Signatures (Logo)
TravelSantaana.com (Website)
Santa Ana Stickers (Collateral/Branding)
PLATINUM: TravelSantaana.com (Website)
GOLD: Santa Ana Public Art Guide (Landing Page)
HONORABLE MENTION: Proud Santanero (Video)
PLATINUM: Discover Santa Ana (Video)
PLATINUM: Discover Santa Ana (Video)
GOLD: TravelSantaana.com (Website)
HONORABLE MENTION: Santa Ana Public Art Guide (Landing Page)
SILVER: TravelSantaAna.com
Outstanding Website
GOLD: Discover Santa Ana (Video)
SILVER: TravelSantaAna.com (Website) Santa Ana Mexico Campaign Digital Marketing (Campaign)
GOLD: Discover Santa Ana (Video) Proud Santaneros (Video) Signatures (Logos)
Santa Ana Loteria (Branded Content)
PLATINUM: 2023 Annual Report (Publications)
GOLD: Santa Ana Mexico Campaign Digital Marketing (Campaign)
HONORABLE MENTION: Official Visitors Guide (Publication)
SILVER:
2024 travel santa ana budget
$1.9* million 2024 santa ana tourism marKeting district revenue $1.5 milllion
*Projected TMD revenue for 2024 was $1.6M, the budget includes carryover revenue from 2023.
financial report
assess M ent
There is no change in the method and basis of levying the assessment. The annual assessment rate is two percent (2%) of gross short-term room rental revenue. Based on the lack of benefit received, assessments will not be collected on revenue resulting from: stays of more than thirty (30) consecutive days; stays by any officer or employee of a foreign government who is exempt by reason of express provision of federal law or international treaty; and stays that any nonprofit organization which, as the result of a disaster, provides at its own expense hotel or motel shelter to any victim of a disaster.
The term “gross room rental revenue” as used herein means: the total consideration charged, whether or not received, for the occupancy of a space in a lodging business valued in money, whether to be received in money, goods, labor or otherwise, including all receipts, cash, credits, property and services of any kind or nature, without any deduction therefrom whatsoever. Gross room rental revenue shall not include any federal, state, or local taxes collected, including but not limited to hotel visitor taxes. The assessment is levied upon and a direct obligation of the assessed lodging business.
However, the assessed lodging business may, at its discretion, pass the assessment on to transients. The amount of assessment, if passed on to each transient, shall be disclosed in advance and separately stated from the amount of rent charged and any other applicable taxes, and each transient shall receive a receipt for payment from the business. The assessment shall be disclosed as the “SATMD Assessment.” The assessment is imposed solely upon and is the sole obligation of the assessed lodging business even if it is passed on to transients. The assessment shall not be considered revenue for any purposes, including calculation of hotel visitor taxes.
