History of the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau
The San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau (ConVis) traces its origins back to 1919 when local realtor O.W. Cotton organized the San Diego-California Club to promote San Diego. The Club's first year budget of $150,000 was raised entirely from the business community. In that era, this was a tremendous sum to raise from a city with a population of only 85,000. By 1925, the Club was operating under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce and had a convention hall in Balboa Park. Sadly, that same year, the convention hall burned down the night it was being used for the Fireman's Ball. It would be 1965 before the city had another public convention facility.
In 1928, the San Diego Convention Bureau was organized to solicit convention business for the city. Eight years later, prominent civic leader Joseph E. Dryer formed the San Diego Heaven on Earth Club, whose function (not surprisingly) was to promote San Diego as a visitor destination. The Club was later absorbed into the San Diego Visitors Bureau in 1946. So there was now a Visitors Bureau and a Convention Bureau, both under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce.
Logic dictated that these two tourism-promoting bureaus should merge. In 1954, they consolidated into an organization independent of the Chamber of Commerce called the San Diego Convention and Tourism Bureau (CONTOUR). Its first chairman of the board was Kenneth Nairne, then Manager of the Bank of America. The first president was Mitch Angus. He was followed by eight other presidents.
The new Bureau's first order of business was to establish a sound base of financial support. This meant setting up a realistic dues structure and negotiating with the City and County of San Diego for matching funds.
Establishing a Convention Center
The Bureau also had to build a professional staff and a sound advertising and publicity program. It still had the nagging problem that had plagued the city since 1925 - no convention center. From the end of World War II until the Community Concourse was conceived in 1961, San Diegans voted against a convention center no less than 14 times.
In the late 1950's, an effort was mounted to remodel the Ford Building in Balboa Park into a convention center. The effort gained momentum as the decade turned, but ultimately died when it became apparent a convention center should be located downtown to meet the needs of the convention market and to aid in the revitalization of Centre City. In the early 1960's, then Mayor Charles Dail appointed a board to develop a "Centre City Plan."
The desire to finance this project without voter-approved general obligation bonds led to one of the first examples of municipal creative financing. The center would be financed by a combination of city capital outlay funds and the City Employee's Retirement Fund. When these combined funds resulted in a $1.5 million shortfall, a group of local businessmen raised the amount from private sources in six weeks.
Throughout the development of the Convention and Performing Arts Center, Bureau staff served as technical advisors, laboring night and day on the design requirements. The Bureau also spearheaded the plan through many public hearings and to final approval by the City Council. Finally, in September 1964, the Center opened with the Bureau's Annual Meeting as its first event.
Establishing the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT)
The convention center battle had no sooner ended then the Bureau plunged into a new struggle over the creation of a new tax - the "Transient Occupancy Tax." The city adopted the tax in June 1965, purportedly to raise funds for tourism promotion. A referendum forced the issue onto the ballot in February 1965. The tax passed over bitter industry opposition, providing a new, larger base of public funding for the Bureau.
This new funding source resulted in a surge in local convention bookings and visitors to San Diego. Memberships soared to 800 in 1965 and topped 1,000 in 1966, ranking the Bureau second only to the New York Bureau in size. Also in 1965, the Bureau's name was changed to its present form - San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Decades of Growth
The decade between 1965-75 marked years of maturation for the Bureau and unprecedented growth for the industry. The largest boom in hotel construction in the city's history (prior to the 1980s) occurred during this time. Major tourist attractions such as SeaWorld, the Wild Animal Park and Old Town were created. Tourism was finally recognized as an economic bulwark of the local economy.
Proof of this was the city's all out effort to lure the 1972 Republican Convention to San Diego. Although political considerations forced a move to Miami, San Diego had made its point. The city had finally reached "big time" in tourism.
Just as the community came to recognize the importance of tourism during the 1970's, the Bureau began to understand that it must involve the whole community. A Blue Ribbon Committee of community leaders was created to reorient the Bureau to community-wide goals. The result was that in 1976, the Bureau's board of directors was reduced from 63 to 25 with the majority representing community entities other than tourism.
Beginnings of Downtown Renewal
The 1980's brought exciting new vistas for the Bureau and the tourism industry. Downtown renewal finally became a reality with redevelopment of the Gaslamp Quarter and the addition of Horton Plaza and Seaport Village. The focus moved west with exciting renewal plans for the Embarcadero and Broadway. Most important of all, a new convention center was under way on Navy Field, finally putting the city into the major convention market.
As the decade ended, the tourism industry was experiencing its most exciting period in its history here. San Diego was becoming a cruise ship port. The area was in the midst of the greatest hotel development boom in San Diego history. In 1988, the region hosted one of the sports world's most prized events - Super Bowl XXII. In 1989, the long-awaited San Diego Convention Center opened its doors for business, the first in a series of infrastructure improvements that would transform San Diego's once neglected waterfront into the sophisticated urban mecca it is today.
Special Events Bring International Exposure to San Diego
In the 1990's, San Diego's visitor industry stepped into the global spotlight by hosting other preeminent events. In 1996, San Diego was selected to host one of the nation's major political conventions, the 1996 Republican National Convention
After successfully hosting two America's Cup sailing competitions in 1988 and 1992 and a 1995 America's Cup challenge race, San Diego's reputation for active living provided the 1996 and 1997 ESPN X-Games an ideal location for the alternative sporting competition. San Diego's first major water park, Whitewater Canyon (now Soak City USA), opened in 1997 in Chula Vista.
In January 1998, San Diego made another major splash across the globe with the successful hosting of Super Bowl XXXII. Fate was especially kind because later that same year the region hosted the 1998 World Series. The Super Bowl was to return to San Diego in January, 2003, bringing with it appreciable economic benefit as well as worldwide media coverage to the region.
Convention Center Expansion
1998 proved to be an important election year for San Diego's visitor industry with the ConVis Board of Directors endorsing four separate ballot measures - one in the June primary and three more in the November General Election. In June, ConVis played a crucial role in voter approval of Proposition A - the San Diego Convention Center Expansion Measure. When construction was completed in September 2001, the Convention Center doubled in size to two million square feet. In addition to holding more events annually, the expanded facility is now able to accommodate larger conventions, such as the popular national auto and boat shows.
New Product Development
The three November ballot measures included a proposition granting SeaWorld an exemption from San Diego's 30-foot height limit on coastline construction. The other two measures involved citywide approval of a downtown ballpark redevelopment district in the East Village and a statewide ballot measure legalizing Indian Casino video gaming machines. As product development remains key to visitor industry growth, each of these ballot measures would supply critical components to the region's enticing attractions. Fortunately, the voters agreed, and as a result SeaWorld now offers its guests an expanded park featuring the popular attraction
Journey to Atlantis; PETCO Park, San Diego's wildly popular downtown Ballpark, opened its doors in April 2004; and San Diego County is home to nine Indian Casinos, some with hotels on site or in various stages of construction.
March 1999 marked the opening of LEGOLAND California, a 128-acre family theme park geared to children ages 3 to 12. Located in Carlsbad, LEGOLAND California is the first theme park of its kind in the United States and the first major attraction to open in the San Diego region in the past 20 years.
The year 2000 saw a revitalization of Downtown San Diego's rapid redevelopment-a "Paradise in Progress"-and several long term projects began to break ground that continue to change the face of San Diego.
The Summer of 2004 also brought a new attraction to the downtown Embarcadero-the San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum. For more than a decade, community leaders worked to bring the decommissioned USS
Midway to San Diego for her final tour of duty-to serve as San Diego's newest attraction. More than $8 million was raised in private contributions and financing to make the museum possible. Visitors to the
Midway topped the one million mark in its first year of operation-in about half the time that original projections indicated. To date, the Midway already has become the most-visited of more than 100 historic naval ship museums in the continental U.S.
Hotel Development
Currently, downtown hotel construction is proceeding at a steady pace, all the while adding increased room inventory to accommodate the larger conventions utilizing the expanded convention center. The 33-story, 750-room second tower of the Manchester Grand Hyatt now offers approximately 120,000 square feet of meeting space and 1,625 rooms, including 90 suites. The 32-story, 512-room Omni Hotel opened concurrently with PETCO Park and is linked to the ballpark by a walkway. The stylish W Hotel also opened its 17th property worldwide in San Diego in 2003.
In 2005, the San Diego region added a variety of boutique and luxury hotels to its inventory. San Diego's first Kimpton Hotel, the 235-room Hotel Solamar, opened its doors in the Gaslamp Quarter. The 22-story San Diego Marriott Gaslamp Quarter Hotel offers 306 guestrooms in the vicinity of the PETCO ballpark and within walking distance to the San Diego Convention Center. Tower23, the first luxury oceanfront hotel to be built in San Diego in a decade, boasts 44 ocean view suites in Pacific Beach, and the Homewood Suites by Hilton offers 120 suites to serve the business community in Del Mar.
Future Development
A beautification project still in its planning stages is the North Embarcadero Plan, which would dramatically improve a two-mile swath of waterfront from Seaport Village to Lindbergh Field. This plan will cost an estimated $50 million and could include an expansion of the Cruise Ship terminal, a public boat dock, a "grand wharf" that would function as a civic meeting place, the expansion of walkways and bike paths and other improvements. Completed, this project would benefit residents and visitors alike.
