The state of tourism in Santa Barbara County is looking good, as explained by speakers during Tuesday’s annual meeting for those in the hospitality industry.
The occasion at Bacara Resort & Spa in Goleta also marked the official name change of the Greater Santa Barbara Lodging & Restaurant Association to Hospitality Santa Barbara — a much shorter name following the recent marketing strategy of tourism organization Visit Santa Barbara.
Nonetheless, the mission remains the same.
“In order to make it clear who we are, the board has decided to change the name,” said Warren Butler, the organization’s outgoing president who this week passed the gavel to Santa Barbara’s Eagle Inn owner Paul Bullock.
Hospitality Santa Barbara’s gathering featured some of the organization’s 130 members and honored Steve Hyslop of Chuck’s Waterfront Grill & Endless Summer Bar Cafe as Hospitality Star of the Year, Hotel Santa Barbara’s Nadine Turner as Hospitality Manager of the Year, and Silvia Velasco of Holiday Inn Express as Hospitality Employee of the Year.
Special shout-outs went to Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, for her work as a region tourism ambassador, and to soon-to-retire Santa Barbara Police Chief Cam Sanchez.
The group invited city leaders to speak on tourism trends in the South Coast, and Goleta City Manager Michelle Greene had only positive things to share.
“To put it very succinctly, Goleta is doing well,” she said, noting occupancy rates remained strong.
“We really invite visitors to come to Goleta and experience what we’re about. We’re a little bit different than our neighbor to the south.”
Goleta boasts a slower pace of life and open space, Greene said, but development is ongoing.
New restaurants and two hotels will come online in 2016, as well as the opening of more restaurants and shops at Hollister Village.
Also, for the first time, Goleta’s transient occupancy taxes surpassed property and sales taxes as the city’s largest revenue source, Greene said.
Santa Barbara saw similar increases in 2015, with a 10.3-percent bump in TOT, according to City Manager Paul Casey.
He said those numbers would likely drop off in 2016 because Santa Barbara City Council has decided to only allow short-term vacation rentals in commercial zones.
Casey referred to the subsequent enforcement process as trying to “put the genie back in the bottle.”
Construction of hotels near the waterfront will yield future dividends, he said, likening La Entrada Hotel project to the amount of time the county has waited for the Miramar Resort, which is also on the horizon.
County Controller Bob Geis said TOT was the county’s third biggest revenue source last year.
Geis said he owed a lot to the hospitality industry, which has provided jobs to many young people including himself years ago.
— Noozhawk staff writer Gina Potthoff can be reached at gpotthoff@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.