Tell your story to
lure tourists, Vacaville group told
By Ryan McCarthy From page A3 |
May 11, 2017
VACAVILLE — Stories about a destination
attract tourists – and the better you tell your story, the more visitors you’ll
have, the president of a South Lake Tahoe-based company said Wednesday.
“People buy into narratives,” Carl Ribaudo
said. “The story is real. Advertising is something else.”
Ribaudo, president of SMG
Consulting, spoke at the ninth annual Tourism Breakfast held by Visit
Vacaville.
People want authentic experiences when
traveling, said Ribaudo, whose firm provides marketing research and strategy as
well as tourism economic analysis and other services.
“People want to connect,” he added.
“You don’t have to be San Francisco,” Ribaudo
said about attracting visitors. “You can be Vacaville.”
The wine industry first created an interest in
agriculture tourism, which has thrived partly due to millennials’ interest
in food and its sources, he noted. Where does the food come is a new and common
question, Ribaudo said.
“People didn’t use to ask that,” he said.
Vacaville is well-positioned for ag tourism,
said Ribaudo, who has served as an adjunct faculty member at Sierra Nevada
College in Lake Tahoe, teaching courses in marketing and advertising. He also
taught a seminar on tourism marketing at the University of Nevada, Reno
Mayor Len Augustine, who welcomed guests to
the event held at the Opera House, said Solano has always been a farm county.
Everybody loves the Bay Area, Augustine added,
but on weekends residents there leave like a catastrophe occurred.
They want to visit where they can breathe the
air, he said.
Visit Vacaville director Melyssa Laughlin
spoke about the $663 million tourists spent in Solano County in 2016. A total
of 8,170 people work in tourism-related businesses, she said.
Visit Vacaville is a non-profit funded by
assessments guests pay when staying at lodging in the city.
Food served at the tourism breakfast was grown
locally.
Reach Ryan McCarthy at
427-6935 or rmccarthy@dailyrepublic.net.
