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Pushing Traditional
Limits: California Culture’s
Edge
 In California, a coalition has had enormous success in reaching
targeted audiences to promote the state’s three major urban
centers as cultural
destinations. Recognized as a national model for multicultural
tourism,
the Travel Industry Association (TIA) awarded California: Culture’s
Edge
the 1998 TIA Odyssey Award.
California: Culture’s Edge partnered arts councils, hotels,
and CVBs in
San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego with American Express
and
Hyatt Hotels and Resorts to promote the cultural aspects of each
urban region. Through a collection of 13 themed itineraries—including
African American Heritage, California Fiesta (Latino heritage),
Jewish Heritage,
Pride (Gay and Lesbian Culture), East is West (Asian culture),
and On the Edge (avant-garde art scene)—travelers were
invited to experience exotic urban and rural adventures through
museums, theaters, ethnic communities, festivals, historic sites,
galleries, architecture, and more.
In each city, hundreds of community and cultural leaders volunteered
to
help identify attractions, restaurants, shops, and night spots
appropriate for each of the 13 itineraries.
The huge cross-promotional effort included:
A 32-page Travel Planner distributed to 950,000 targeted consumers
and travel agents.
A 120-page Itinerary Book distributed to 50,000 prospective
California travelers who requested more information after seeing
the Travel
Planner.‚
A 24-page American Express Guide to Great Values, which was
distributed to 25,000 consumers at American Express Travel
Service locations
throughout the United States.  The $2 million marketing campaign, funded largely by American
Express along
with a National Endowment for the Arts grant of $150,000 and
additional funding from coalition members and advertising sales,
was launched in 1998 with same-day business-section articles
in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.
Of 200,000 Travel Planners mailed to targeted American Express
cardmember households in California feeder markets, 115,000 (58.16
percent) traveled to California in
the six-month period following the mailing, spending $154,664,870
while there.
“The response by our cardmembers was outstanding and proved
that a good cultural product can increase the amount of time
and money travelers will spend in market,” states Stan
Washington, Vice President and General Manager, American Express
Establishment Services, Western Region.
“This campaign proved that when the nonprofit arts and
for-profit travel industries work together, when true public/private
partnerships are developed around common goals, the sky’s
the limit,” says Laura Zucker, executive director, Los
Angeles County Arts Commission.
For more information, contact the Los Angeles Convention and
Visitors Bureau at (213) 236-2364 or www.lacvb.com.
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