California’s Central Coast: chatting with Cheryl Bagby

21.07.2023 - 08:34 / roughguides.com

California’s Central Coast – threaded by the iconic Pacific Coast Highway – is made up of six counties: Ventura, Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, San Benito and Santa Cruz. Epic oceanside views and the dramatic coastline of Big Sur, stellar wineries and cool galleries all find their home in the region, as does the University of California, with campuses at both Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz. This is “Hollywood’s Backyard”, coastal hotspots stretching from LA to San Fran. We spoke to Cheryl Bagby, VP Sales & Marketing for Visit Ventura, as well as the VP of the Central Coast Tourism Council, about how the region was coping with coronavirus, and what plans are in the area moving forwards.

Q: Have there been any positive news stories or great innovations coming from California during the time of Covid-19?

A: What’s been amazing to see is that lockdown has inspired a stronger sense of community. Visit Ventura set up a Ventura Wall where people can post positive, mood-lifting content and its been humbling to see how much people are going out of their way to help those in their local community. We’ve encouraged people to share these using #StayVenturaStrong, and made our own Gratitude video that you can see here.

High Surf at the Walton Lighthouse in Santa Cruz, California © Edmund Lowe Photography/Shutterstock

Q: What has your organization done to adapt?

A: Like many organizations, the rhetoric has had to be about inspiring people to travel later. With over ninety percent of Ventura businesses being locally owned and run, we have been working hard to support the businesses that have been able to remain open, with Takeout Tuesdays showcasing the best takeout offers, and Thirsty Thursdays livestreaming tastings from our breweries and wineries. We have also become an information hub for vital news updates – such as beach closures – and the latest social-distancing measures. And of course it’s been really important to keep a sense of humour, whilst respecting the soberness of the situation, which is a delicate balance.

Q: What have been the pleasures and challenges of engaging travellers virtually?

A: Of course the biggest challenge working in the travel industry is not to promote travel! But we have aimed to still provide inspiration and keep people engaged. Doing live feeds from our museums and tasting series, we’ve been encouraging comments and it’s been great to see “Hellos from Italy” and all over the world. I know many of my Central Coast Tourism Council counterparts have also embraced virtual travel, such as the SloCal “Be Here” campaign, live webcams on the See Monterey website, and Santa Cruz livestreaming everything from comedy nights to live music using the tag #untilwecruzagain.

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