Big Bear News – Big Bear Lake, CA – At yesterday’s Special Board meeting of Visit Big Bear, available both by video and telephonically, Interim CEO, Michael Perry, and Board members discussed plans for moving forward in the development of a 2021 Marketing Strategic Plan, visitor guide directives, upcoming events and financial report. Visit Big Bear’s marketing consultant, Adriena Daunt, presented a vision strategy for this year. Rather than focus on driving a higher visitor count to Big Bear, Daunt is suggesting targeting high-value visitors who will support our local economy, stay overnight and be respectful of our community and local environment. The directive is to find a balance that meets the needs of both locals and visitors. The timeline will be first to seek stakeholder input and review past strategies before finalizing a visitor strategy by April. Discussion also focused on the creation of the 2021 Visitor Guide with the company Wanderlust, the creative team who produced the publication in 2020. With the cancellation of almost all of Visit Big Bear’s events last year due to COVID, they currently have a higher than normal operating budget of $2.9 million in the bank. As Board President Loren Hafen tells Kbear, those dollars will be used for managing the tourism business and the “Care for Big Bear” campaign developed by Visit Big Bear. He added that they are moving slowly to bring back events to Big Bear such as the Grill n’ Chill, Fishin for $50k and 4th of July and Memorial Day fireworks. Future events will be dictated by current COVID restrictions at the time. Michael Perry gave a TBID update stating that the extended proposal will be addressed at the February Big Bear Lake City Council meeting. The current TBID contract will expire on March 31st. Perry tells KBHR that part of the Visit Big Bear TBID proposal to the City Council for renewal was to offer $150K into the new Tourism Mitigation Fund and additionally, every year thereafter, to deposit 5% of what is collected to this fund. The proposal also includes Visit Big Bear assuming expenses for the 4th of July fireworks, the events department coordinator and other miscellaneous costs totaling up to $450K. Perry added that the City and Visit Big Bear are working on the same mission to make this city better for its residents and visitors.
