Lost among the city’s stumbling over who’ll get its three-year, $370,000 annual marketing contract is this: There’s not much to draw tourists here in the first place.
Victorian architecture? Tourists can see plenty of that in San Francisco, with the added bonus of not having to peer through a wrought iron gate. Eureka’s most famous landmark is a private clubhouse.
The Pacific? Beautiful ocean views can also be seen from cities up and down the California coast.
Arts and entertainment? Fine dining?
We’re not hating on Eureka. We love it here. Visit the Sequoia Park Zoo while you’re here. Hop aboard the Madaket. Stroll through Old Town. Take in Arts Alive! Enjoy a festival or two.
But, really now. Really.
Really?
People come here to see the redwoods, folks.
They can see everything else while they’re here, but the draw is the trees.
Eureka and the rest of the Humboldt County tourism complex ought to get over its allergy to cannabis as a draw, but our bet is that as the commercial market across the state shakes out, the odds of massive streams of cannabis tourists flooding our fair county are low. There may be a select few who make the long journey here, but they’re going to be outnumbered by redwood tourists. There’s no reason to treat bud-and-breakfasts like leper colonies, and continuing to do so isn’t doing our region’s tourism strategy any favors.
But the redwoods are the draw.
Taking $370,000 annually out of regional marketing in an effort to boost Eureka alone ignores this. There is plenty of opportunity for boosting business in the city while tourists are here to see the trees (outside city limits) or arriving at the airport (outside city limits), or visiting their kids on campus (outside city limits), or dropping by the county fair (outside city limits), or witnessing the spectacle of the Kinetic Grand Championship kickoff (outside city limits), or touring our region’s finest grows (outside city limits).
Setting all this aside, imagine how little $370,000 a year for three years actually buys. Imagine all of it’s going to be spent only on advertising Eureka in, say, six markets — Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Humboldt County and Eureka itself. Imagine no agency commission, no people, no web or ad design, just bought ads. It averages out to $5,139 per market per month. Maybe enough for a single large billboard in L.A.
What would you most likely put on that billboard, overlooking a gridlocked hellscape? The Carson Mansion, a marijuana leaf, or redwoods? What’s the winning bet?
Eureka’s the gateway, not the destination. It rises and falls with the rest of the county. Plan accordingly.
